CT&RAR.Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
OF    ILLINOIS 

B 


LIFE  OF.ALBERTR.  PARSONS 


WITHj 


OF  THE 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA, 


Of  what  avail  is  plow  or  sail, 
Or  land  or  life,  if  freedom  fail  I 

—ALBERT  B.  PARSONS. 


CHICAGO. 
MKS.  LUCY  E.  PARSONS,  PUBLISHER  AND  PBOPBIETOB. 

1889. 


COPYRIGHT  1889 
BY 

MRS.  LUCY  E.  PARSONS. 


THIS  BOOK  IS 

LOVINGLY  DEDICATED  TO  THE  SACRED  MEMORY 

OF  ONE  WHOSE  ONLY  CRIME  WAS  THAT 

HE  LIVED   IN   ADVANCE 

OF  HIS  TIME, 


b*lot)cb  Ijnsbcmfc,  Companion,  cmb  Contract, 

* 

ALBERT    R.  PARSONS. 


CONTENTS. 


THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA 
THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO 
AUTHOR'S  NOTE 


PART  I. 

CHAPTER  I.    ALBERT  E.  PARSONS'  ANCESTORS  ...  1 

LETTER  FROM  A  NATIVE  OF  NEWBERRYPORT,  MASS.  3 

"        II.    THE  STORY  OF  His  LIFE  ....  6 


PAET  II. 

CHAPTER  I.  MR.  PARSONS'  WESTERN  TRIP  CORRESPONDENCE  25 

II.  LETTER  FROM  TOPEKA,  KAN,          ....  30 

"       III.  LETTER  FROM  SALINEVILLE,  OHIO      ...  35 

"       IV.  LETTER  FROM  THE  SMOKY  CITY      ....  42 

V.  IN  THE  OHIO  COAL  REGION        ....  50 

VI.  SPEECH  IN  SPRINGFIELD,  OHIO       ....  56 

"     VII.  A  POSTHUMOUS  LETTER                     .                 .  60 


PART  III. 


CHAPTER  I.  MEETING  AT  SOUTH  BEND,  IND.     . 

II.  UNDER  THE  BED  FLAG 

"       III.  OBSERVING  THANKSGIVING  DAY,  1885 

"       IV.  THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE 

V.  SELECTED  EDITORIALS 

"       VI.  AN  INTERESTING  INTERVIEW 


65 
70 

77 
78 
87 
92 


PART  IV. 

CHAPTER  I.  THE  HAYMARKET  MEETING   . 

II.  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY 

"       III.  PARSONS'  HAYMARKET  SPEECH 

"       IV.  LETTER  FROM  ATTORNEY  W.  A.  FOSTER 

V.  WHAT  is  AN  ACCESSORY  ? 

'      VI.  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT    . 

VII.  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS'  SPEECH  IN  COURT 


97 

100 
117 
128 
132 
138 
165 


PART  V. 

CHAPTER  I.  REMINISCENCES  OF  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS 

"        II.  MR.  PARSONS  AT  GENEVA 

"      III.  A  CHAPTER  OF  HISTORY    . 

"       IV.  ECHOES  FROM  His  PRISON  CELL    .        . 


189 
201 
206 
210 


APPENDIX. 

THE  STORY  TOLD  BY  HELEN  WILMANS 

MRS.  PARSONS'  ARREST  IN  COLUMBUS,  OHIO 

THE  AFFIDAVIT  OF  OTIS  FAVOR 

THE  LORD  LIEUTENANT  AND  THE  MAYOR 

CAPT.  BLACK'S  EULOGY  AT  THE  TOMB 

BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER'S  LETTER  TO  CAPT.  BLACK 


230 
235 
242 
243 
245 
251 


TABLE  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


ALBERT  E.  PARSONS,  SR. 

LUCY  E.  PARSONS  .... 

ALBERT  E.  PARSONS,  JR. 

LULU  EDA  PARSONS          .... 

ANARCHIST  MEETINGS  ON  LAKE  FRONT 

HAYMARKET  MEETING 

MR.  PARSONS  AS  CARPENTER  IN  WAUKESHA 

THE  BOAT        .... 

MR.  PARSONS  IN  His  PRISON  CELL 

AUTOGRAPH  LETTER  TO  His  CHILDREN 

HAYMARKET  DIAGRAM    .... 


HISTORY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA. 


I  I  I  HE  standard  of  life  is  the  regulator  of  the  wages  of  the  toiling 
-^  I  IQ  masses.  Our  population  is  a  mixture  of  many  nationalities, 
•*-  who  differ  in  their  habits  of  living.  In  1640  the  British 
colonies  contained  an  aggregate  population  of  25,000  whites.  In 
1660  the  total  had  increased  to  80,000.  In  1689  the  number  was 
about  200,000;  in  1721  it  reached  about  500,000;  in  1743,  1,000,000; 
in  1767,  2,000,000.  The  whole  population  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war 
of  independence  was  not  much  more  than  2,500,000.  The  whole 
number  of  aliens  who  came  to  the  United  States  from  1789  to  1820 
was  about  250,000 ;  from  1820  to  date,  about  14,250,000,  making 
about  14,500,000,  nearly  one-half  of  whom  arrived  since  1870. 
According  to  the  census  of  1880  there  were  in  the  United  States 
6,679,943  persons  of  foreign  birth,  constituting  13  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  population ;  6,580,793  colored  persons,  and  36,723,207  native 
whites,  and  there  were  14,922,744  persons  who  had  one  or  both 
parents  foreign  born.  At  the  present  time  we  have  60,000,000  peo- 
ple, and  the  proportionate  increase  of  persons  of  foreign  parentage 
has  been  very  large,  especially  in  cities  and  mining  regions. 

The  agitation  of  shorter  hours  of  daily  work  begins  with  the 
present  century.  The  labor  men  were  then  self-employed  mechanics, 
and  the  factory  system,  with  its  labor- aiding  machinery,  was  hardly 
yet  known.  The  building  trades  were  then,  as  now,  in  the  advance 
of  this  short-hour  movement.  The  New  York  Society  of  Journey- 
men Shipwrights  was  incorporated  April  30, 1803,  and  the  house  car- 
penters of  the  city  of  New  York  in  1806.  At  that  time  the  journey- 
men mechanics  and  the  master  mechanics  were  the  employes  of  the 


II  HISTORY  OF  THE 

merchants,  who  resolved  that  "We  view  with  deep  regret  the  course 
that  some  of  our  fellow-citizens,  journeymen  ship  carpenters,  calkers, 
nnd  others,  are  pursuing  in  the  adoption  and  maintenance  of  a 
system  of  measures  designed  to  coerce  individuals  of  their  craft  and 
to  prescribe  the  time  and  manner  of  the  labor  for  which  they  are 
liberally  paid.  In  our  opinion  this  combination  has  a  direct  tend- 
•ency  to  put  their  business  into  other  hands,  or  seriously  to  injure  it, 
by  reducing  ship-owners  to  repair  their  vessels  elsewhere  rather 
than  submit  to  the  inconvenience,  delays,  and  vexations  to  which 
they  would  be  exposed  when  they  can  obtain  labor  only  at  such 
times  and  on  such  conditions  as  the  folly  and  caprice  of  a  few 
journeymen  mechanics  may  dictate,  who  are  now  idle  two  or  three 
of  the  most  valuable  hours  of  each  day.  The  merchants  then 
declared  their  intention  to  black-list  all  persons  belonging  to  the 
association  which  demanded  the  reduction  of  the  hours  of  daily 
work  from  fourteen  to  ten. 

The  journeymen  carpenters  and  calkers  of  Boston  lost  their 
first  strike  for  ten  hours  in  May,  1832,  but  they  gained  their  demand 
for  ten  hours  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  in  1832  and  1833.  The 
short-hour  movement  attained  such  magnitude  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  Martin  Van  Buren,  established  by  procla- 
mation of  April  10,  1840,  the  ten-hour  system  for  all  employes  of 
the  United  States  Government  in  the  navy-yards.  Gov.  Fort,  of  New 
Jersey,  in  1841  recommended  legislation  in  favor  of  shorter  daily 
working  hours.  In  1841  he  said :  Constant  and  unremitting  toil 
prevents  intellectual  improvement  and  leads  to  physical  and  moral 
debasement.  In  1841  a  firm  of  boat-builders  in  Bath,  Maine,  adopted 
the  ten-hour  system.  All  but  two  of  the  ship-yards  in  Bath  finally 
yielded,  and  ten  hours  became  the  rule  of  that  city. 

On  the  16th  of  June,  1845,  a  mass  meeting  of  the  people  of 
Pittsburgh  and  Alleghany  City  was  held  at  Pittsburgh  in  favor  of  a 
ten-hour  work  day.  At  least  5,000  persons  were  in  attendance,  a  large 
number  of  whom  were  females.  A  strike  followed,  in  which  4,000 
persons  were  engaged.  After  remaining  out  five  weeks  the  opera- 
tives returned  under  the  old  conditions. 

The  first  industrial  convention  in  the  United  States  convened 
in  New  York  October  12, 1845,  and  proposed  a  plan  for  the  formation 
of  a  secret  industrial  brotherhood.  In  the  latter  part  of  1845  and  in 
1846  immense  mass-meetings  were  held  in  the  New  England  States, 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA.  Ill 

.New  York,  and  Pennsylvania,  and  many  strikes  for  ten  hours  were 
commenced.  The  British  Parliament  passed  a  ten-hour  law  in  the 
early  summer  of  1847,  and  thereupon  mass-meetings  were  held  in 
the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States  congratulating  the  English 
people  on  their  triumph.  On  the  3d  day  of  July,  1847,  a  law  was 
passed  in  New  Hampshire  making  ten  hours  a  legal  day's  work. 
The  uprising  in  1848  renewed  the  agitation  of  American  labor 
reform.  A  mass-meeting  of  workingmen  in  Faneuil  hall,  May  9, 
formulated  the  following  measures :  1.  Eeduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor ;  2.  An  efficient  lien  law ;  3.  The  freedom  of  the  public  lands ; 
4.  The  inalienability  of  the  homestead ;  5.  The  abolition  of  the  poll- 
tax  as  a  condition  of  the  elective  franchise ;  6.  An  industrial  depart- 
ment in  the  Government;  7.  Destruction  of  all  white  and  black 
slavery ;  8.  Eeduction  of  all  officers  and  salaries,  especially  those 
of  $8  a  day  and  upward,  to  the  standard  of  all  useful  and  necessary 
labor. 

In  1818  petitions  were  sent  to  Washington  demanding  a  ten- 
hour  law  and  a  law  restraining  persons  from  employing  children  in 
factories  over  eight  hours  a  day,  and  obliging  those  employing 
them  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  obtain  a  common-school 
education. 

An  industrial  congress  was  held  in  Chicago  on  the  second 
Wednesday  of  June,  1850,  and  local  trades  asssemblies  were  formed 
in  many  large  cities  to  carry  the  ten-hour  system  by  means  of  strikes. 
In  1853  eleven  hours  were  adopted  in  many  parts  of  the  country  as 
the  regular  work  day.  In  some  places  the  factories  continued  to 
run  on  the  old  (fourteen  or  more)  hours  until  about  1865,  when  the 
eleven-hour  system  was  adopted  as  the  result  of  strikes.  Ten-hour 
laws  have  been  adopted  in  Massachusetts,  Ehode  Island,  and  other 
States,  but  in  some  Eastern  States  the  hours  of  labor  range  from 
eleven  to  thirteen,  while  in  the  Western  States  ten  hours  is  the 
rule. 

That  this  movement  is  a  necessity  is  made  manifest  by  the  fol- 
lowing statement  of  Caroll  D.  Wright,  Commissioner  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  who  has  submitted  a  report  which  relates  intirely  to 
the  subject  of  working-men  in  great  cities.  Three  hundred  and 
forty-two  distinct  industries  in  twenty-two  cities  have  been  in- 
vestigated. The  report  shows  that  the  working- women  in  the  great 
cities  are  practically  girls.  The  average  age  in  all  cities  com- 


IV  HISTORY  OF  THE 

prehended  is  22  years  and  7  months.  The  highest  average  age  is- 
found  in  Charleston,  South  Carolina, — 25  years  and  1  month  ;  the 
lowest  in  St.  Paul — 21  years  und  5  months.  It  is  found,  however, 
that  the  concentration  is  greatest  at  the  age  of  18,  there  being  of  the 
whole  number  interviewed  1,570  of  that  age. 

The  general  average  age  at  beginning  work  is  shown  to  be 
15  years  and  4  months,  the  highest  average  being  17  years  and 
10  months,  and  the  lowest  14  years  and  7  months ;  the  former  at 
San  Jose,  California,  and  the  latter  at  Newark,  New  Jersey. 

The  average  period  during  which  the  woman  have  been  engaged 
in  their  present  occupations  is  shown  to  be  4  years  and  9  months 
and  that  of  the  17,427  women  involved  9,510  are  engaged  in  their 
first  trial  at  earning  their  own  living. 

Of  the  whole  number  14,120  are  native  born.  In  the  foreign 
born  Ireland  is  most  largely  represented,  and  Germany  next,  hav- 
ing 775.  Of  the  native  born  12,904  had  foreign-born  fathers  and 
12,406  foreign-born  mothers. 

A  great  majority  of  the  women  comprehended  in  the  report  are 
single,  the  number  being  15,387.  Only  745  are  married  and  1,038 
widowed.  "The  working- women,"  says  the  report,  "are  as  a  rule 
single  women,  fighting  their  industrial  fight  alone.  They  are  not  only 
supporting  themselves  but  are  giving  their  earnings  largely  to  the 
support  of  others  at  home.  Of  the  whole  number  under  consider- 
ation 9,813  not  only  work  at  their  regular  occupations  but  assist 
with  the  housework  at  home,  the  total  number  living  at  home  being 
14,018 — that  is  to  say,  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  working- 
women  in  the  great  cities  are  under  home  influences.  More  than 
half  of  the  whole  8,754  give  their  earnings  to  home  life,  4,267  pay 
board  at  their  own  homes,  and  only  701  receive  board  at  the  hands 
of  their  families.  The  average  number  of  persons  in  the  families  of 
working  women  is  5.25,  each  of  which  has  on  an  overage  2.48 
workers. 

The  report  shows  that  of  the  17,426  who  reported  their  health 
conditions  at  the  time  they  commenced  work,  16,360  were  in  good 
health,  883  were  in  fair  health,  and  183  in  bad  health.  The 
changes  in  health  condition  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  14,554  are 
now  in  good  health,  2,345  are  in  fair  health,  and  489  are  in  bad 
health.  The  tables  disclose  no  particular  facts  relative  to  the 
health  changes  in  the  different  cities  or  by  industries.  In  home 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA.  V 

conditions  12,020  report  themselves  comfortable,  while  4,693  state 
that  their  home  conditions  are  poor,  and  "poor,"  in  this  investiga- 
tion, says  the  Commissioner,  is  poor  indeed.  In  shop  conditions, 
however,  a  better  state  of  affairs  exists. 

The  tables  upon  earnings  and  lost  time  show  that  of  the 
13,822  who  reported,  373  earn  less  than  $100  per  annum,  and  that 
this  class  lost  an  average  of  86.5  days  for  the  year  covered.  The 
largest  number  earn  $200  and  under  $250  per  annum,  losing  37.8 
days ;  2,377  earn  from  $250  to  $300,  losing  31.5  days.  As  earnings 
increase  the  lost  time  decreases,  as,  for  instance,  398  earn  from 
$450  to  $500  a  year,  and  this  class  lost  but  18.8  days.  These  earn- 
ings are  actual  earnings,  and  are  not  statements  derived  from 
computations  based  on  the  rates  of  wages.  The  average  weekly 
earnings  by  cities  is  given  as  follows :  Atlanta,  $3.05 ;  Baltimore, 
$4.18 ;  Boston,  $5.64 ;  Brooklyn,  $5.76;  Buffalo,  $4.37;  Charleston, 
$4.22;  Chicago,  $5.74;  Cincinnati,  $4.50;  Cleveland,  $4.63; 
Indianapolis,  $4.67;  Louisville,  $4.51;  Newark,  $5.10;  New 
Orleans,  $4.31 ;  New  York,  $5.85 ;  Philadelphia,  $5.34 ;  Providence, 
$5.51 ;  Kichmond,  $3.93 ;  St.  Louis,  $5.10 ;  St.  Paul,  $6.02 ;  San 
Francisco,  $6.91;  San  Jose,  $6.11;  Savannah,  $4.99.  All  other 
cities,  $5.24. 

Upon  the  subject  of  "  character  of  the  working- women,"  the 
Commissioner  says :  "From  all  that  can  be  learned  one  need  not 
hesitate  in  asserting  that  the  working-women  of  this  country  are  as 
honest  and  as  virtuous  as  any  other  class  of  our  citizens.  The 
social  standing  of  working- women  is  becoming  better  and  better. 

In  Massachusetts  in  1885,  out  of  a  population  of  less  than 
2,000,000,  44  per  cent,  were  of  native  parentage,  50  per  cent,  of 
foreign  parentage,  and  6  per  cent,  of  mixed  parentage.  Of  the 
foreign-born  population  of  Massachusetts,  about  85  per  cent,  are 
20  years  old  and  upwards  ;  of  the  native  born  about  55  per  cent. — 
the  immigrants  being  largely  in  the  productive  ages  of  manhood 
and  womanhood.  Of  the  immigrants  into  the  United  States  about 
20  per  cent,  are  below  the  age  of  15,  and  about  70  per  cent, 
between  the  ages  of  15  and  40,  the  remaining  10  per  cent,  above  40 
years ;  so  that  four-fifths  of  the  immigrants  are  in  their  productive 
manhood,  and  the  great  mass  of  them  in  their  early  manhood. 
Statistics  show  that  of  the  immigrants  with  occupations,  about  22 
per  cent,  are  skilled  artisans,  76  per  cent,  unskilled  workers,  and  1 


VI  HISTORY  OF  THE 

per  cent,  professional.  This  unskilled  labor  of  Europe  crowds  into 
the  factories,  mines,  etc.  Our  native  American  workmen  are  sub- 
ject to  the  competition  from  mobilized  armies  of  working-people 
rushing  into  the  United  States  from  Europe  and  Canada. 

These  aliens  can  accumulate  wealth  upon  wages  which  will 
supply  the  American's  family  with  only  the  bare  necessities.  The 
standard  of  living  of  these  immigrants  is  much  lower  than  the 
native  American  standard.  They  have  from  their  savings  built  up 
whole  settlements  in  Chicago  and  have  crowded  out  the  "natives." 
If  the  population  of  Chicago  is  counted  at  800,000,  no  more  than 
200,000  could  be  found  as  belonging  to  the  Anglo-American  element, 
and  perhaps  not  one-half  of  these  Americans  are  at  work  in  employ- 
ments which  the  Italians,  Bohemians,  Poles,  Scandinavians,  Irish, 
Germans,  etc.,  have  overrun  and  captured  from  the  higher-priced 
native-born  wage-workers.  The  avalanche  of  foreign  immigration 
has  greatly  reduced  the  former  American  rate  of  wages  until  a  halt 
has  been  called  by  a  universal  organization  of  trades  and  their 
related  occupation.  The  Americans  must  raise  their  comrades  of 
other  nationalities  to  the  high  American  standard  in  order  to  save 
themselves  from  degradation. 

An  eight-hour  bill  for  all  government  workmen  was  passed  by 
Congress  in  1868  and  signed  by  President  Johnson.  A  labor  con- 
gress met  at  Baltimore  August  20,  1866,  and  resolved  that  the  time 
had  come  when  the  workingmen  of  the  United  States  should  cut 
themselves  loose  from  all  party  ties  and  organize  themselves  into  a 
national  Labor  party,  the  object  of  which  shall  be  to  secure  the 
enactment  of  a  law  making  eight  hours  a  day's  work. 

The  National  Labor  Congress  met  August  19,  1867,  at  Chicago, 
and  its  president  in  his  report  urged  the  eight-hour  movement* 
Many  strikes  for  the  eight-hour  system  were  lost  in  1868  and  follow- 
ing years.  In  the  spring  of  1869  the  Boston  Eight-Hour  League 
was  formed,  whose  preamble  to  the  constitution  argued  that  a 
reduction  of  hours  is  an  increase  of  wages ;  that  this  increase  is 
without  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  cost  of  production ;  that  the 
increase  of  wages  without  increased  cost  is  a  better  general  distribu- 
tion of  wealth ;  that  a  better  distribution  of  wealth  in  the  process  of 
production  lessens  profits  upon  labor,  and  thus  makes  co-operative 
labor  practicable;  that  leisure  is  the  greatest  motive  power  to 
create  civilizing  wants  and  desires ;  that  the  unjust  wage  system 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IX  AMERICA.  VII 

must  gradually  become  changed  into  profit-saving,  co-operation — 
Socialism. 

In  the  winter  of  1869  the  Knights  of  Labor  were  organized  in 
Philadelphia.  In  1870  and  1871  the  International  Workingmen's 
Association  of  Europe  commenced  to  form  branches  among  the 
Germans  in  the  United  States,  and  its  influence  has  been  felt  in 
political  labor  movements  up  to  the  present  moment.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1872  nearly  100,000  men  struck  in  New  York,  and  the  follow- 
ing trades  secured  the  eight-hour  day :  Stone-masons  and  masons 
and  masons'  laborers,  brown  and  bluestone  cutters,  bricklayers, 
carpenters,  plasterers,  painters,  plumbers,  paper-hangers,  and 
plate-printers. 

The  winter  of  1873-4  was  one  of  extreme  hardship  in  the  United 
States.  The  suffering  unemployed  poor  of  New  York  city  deter- 
mined to  meet  in  Tomkin's  square  January  13, 1874,  to  appeal  to  the 
public  by  bringing  to  their  attention  the  spectacle  of  their  poverty. 
When  the  square  was  overcrowded  with  men,  women,  and  children 
without  a  moment's  warning  the  police  closed  in  upon  them  on  all 
sides.  People  rushed  from  the  gates  and  through  the  streets,  fol- 
lowed by  the  mounted  rowdy  police,  who  clubbed  the  people,  etc. 
From  1873  to  1876  great  strikes  occurred  in  the  New  England 
States,  in  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Missouri,  Maryland, 
Ohio,  and  New  York,  and  the  great  railroad  strikes  of  1877  aroused 
the  people  to  realization  of  the  actual  conflict  between  capitalism 
and  organized  labor  (Socialism).  In  1878  Congress  appointed  a  com- 
mittee of  seven  members  of  the  House  to  ascertain  the  causes  of  the 
general  depression  of  business  and  to  devise  and  propose  measures 
for  relief.  The  committee  took  testimony  and  reported  in  full.  In 
1878  and  1879  the  Fourth  of  July  was  made  an  occasion  of  public 
demonstrations  in  the  advocacy  of  the  eight-hour  movement. 

In  1879  the  discontent  among  the  colored  people  of  Mississippi 
caused  their  exodus  to  Kansas  on  account  of  bad  treatment  by  the 
planters.  In  1880  the  federation  of  the  organized  trade  and  labor 
unions  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  was  formed.  Its  platform 
demands  the  enforcement  of  existing  labor  laws  and  the  enactment 
of  others,  and  recommends  proper  representation  in  all  law-making 
bodies  by  the  ballot.  In  October,  1884,  the  Federation  met  in  Chi- 
cago and  set  May  1, 1886,  as  the  day  for  the  general  introduction  of 
the  eight-hour  system.  A  general  strike  was  inaugurated  in  Chi- 


VIII  HISTORY  OF  THE 

cago  on  that  day,  and  the  building  trades,  cigar-makers,  and  some 
other  trades  gained  an  eight-hour  day  or  a  less  reduction  since  that 
day.  California,  Connecticut,  Illinois,  New  Mexico,  Pennsylvania, 
and  New  York  made  eight  hours  a  legal  day's  work,  unless  otherwise 
agreed.  Many  States  limit  the  hours  of  labor  for  women  and  chil- 
dren; but  all  these  laws  remain  dead  letters  where  labor  unions 
cannot  compel  the  legal  standard  to  become  an  enforced  custom. 
Some  States  require  all  children  between  certain  ages  to  attend 
school  a  certain  number  of  months  in  each  year.  The  unerring 
instinct  of  the  toiling  masses  of  the  United  States  insists  upon  a 
limitation  of  daily  wage-work  for  the  whole  population,  so  as  to 
afford  remunerative  employment  for  the  great  number  of  able-bodied 
people  who  are  now  out  of  work ;  also  to  provide  leisure  for  those 
vast  masses  of  people  who  are  now  overworked  and  live  without  the 
needful  leisure  and  recreation.  Children  should  be  provided  with 
the  means  of  mental  and  industrial  schooling  and  healthy  recrea- 
tion, and  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  compete  with  the  adults  in  the 
stores,  factories,  mines,  fields,  etc.  Many  hundred  thousand  chil- 
dren are  now  employed  in  gainful  occupations  in  the  United  States 
who  are  thereby  stunted  in  their  growth,  physically  and  mentally, 
and  in  many  cases  replace  adult  workers,  who  are  thereby  disabled 
to  support  themselves  and  those  who  depend  upon  them  for  decent 
support.  Society  is  supreme  over  the  whole  living  generation,  and 
is  in  duty  bound  to  protect  the  children  against  the  greed  of  parents 
or  employers,  and  to  tax  the  property  and  income  of  the  people  for 
the  support  and  needful  education  of  all  the  children.  There  is  no 
superabundance  of  native-born  children,  and  no  redundance  of 
highly  civilized  Americans  to  make  us  reckless  in  working  up  or 
quickly  using  up  our  new  crop  of  American  humanity. 

The  history  of  the  labor  movement  shows  that  from  1832  to 
1853  a  reduction  of  three  hours  a  day  has  been  made  in  most  of  the 
industrial — manufacturing,  mining,  etc.— employments,  and  that 
this  reduction  every  six  and  a  half  years  was  followed  by  an 
increased  purchasing  power  of  the  day's  work.  Less  hours  of  daily 
labor  in  the  workshops  brought  a  higher  rate  of  actual  wages  with 
greater  purchasing  power  of  goods  and  services.  Our  people  are 
over-anxious  for  remunerative  work ;  they  are  greedy  for  making 
money.  Bitter  experience  has  taught  them  the  terrible  lesson  that 
overwork  means  underpay.  The  Cigar-makers'  Union  forbids  under 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA.  IX 

heavy  penalty  any  more  than  eight  hours  daily  work,  because  the 
cigarmakers  have  found  out  that  this  voluntary  limitation  is  the 
most  profitable  arrangement  for  the  whole  body  of  the  cigar-makers 
in  the  United  States.  The  stone-cutters  in  Chicago  work  eight  hours 
a  day  since  1867,  to  the  full  satisfaction  of  the  bosses.  Our  whole 
population  works  six  days  and  rests  on  the  seventh  day  of  each 
week ;  it  can  well  afford  to  limit  the  working  day  of  the  machine- 
aided  factory  hands  and  miners  to  eight  hours,  so  as  to  distribute 
remunerative  employment  throughout  the  whole  year.  Our  great 
industrial  armies  have  no  steady  work  at  present,  because  there  are 
too  many  unemployed  people  on  account  of  the  long  hours  of  those 
at  work.  To  get  rid  of  pauperism,  wage-work  must  be  equalized 
among  all  able-  bodied  persons.  N  ecessity  compels  us  to  insist  upon 
making  opportunities  for  the  great  number  of  unemployed,  who 
affect  the  standard  of  wages  by  their  pressure  to  get  a  job  at  any 
price.  Men  invent  new  improvements  in  production,  transporta- 
tion, and  distribution,  but  nobody  can  invent  a  new  want,  because 
human  nature  is  fixed  by  the  Creator.  Labor  is  a  social  function 
for  the  supply  of  human  wants,  and  must  be  organized  so  that 
everybody  gets  a  chance  to  work  in  order  to  exchange  his  service 
with  all  those  who  work.  It  is  a  mutual  service.  Compulsory  idle- 
ness of  a  portion  of  the  people  for  lack  of  opportunity  is  a  burden 
for  the  whole  community,  because  the  idlers  must  then  live  at  the 
expense  of  workers.  Since  the  close  of  the  civil  war  (1866),  when 
1,000,000  of  federal  and  confederate  soldiers  came  back  to  civil 
employments,  a  very  large  proportion  of  industrial  (manufacturing, 
mining,  etc.)  workers  have  been  overworked,  and  too  many  people 
have  been  pauperized  by  lack  of  sufficient  work.  We  are  cursed 
with  a  mass  of  unproductive  idlers,  who  can  not  be  put  to  work 
because  there  is  no  chance  for  them  to  become  productive  consum- 
ers unless  the  daily  working  hours  for  all  wage-workers  in  machine- 
aided  industries  are  reduced.  It  is  no  longer  a  question  of  wages 
and  profits,  of  savings  and  accumulations  of  productive  capital,  but 
of  the  abolition  of  idleness  among  an  increasing  mass  of  able-bodied 
men  who  insist  upon  the  right  of  making  their  living  by  the  sweat 
of  their  brow.  An  annual  average  of  500,000  immigrants  in  their 
reproductive  age,  and  willing  to  work  at  any  price  and  under  con- 
ditions of  a  low  standard  of  living,  hastens  the  solution  of  this  short- 
hour  problem,  which  cannot  be  put  off  by  the  wholesale  purchase  of 


X  HISTORY  OF  THE 

votes  to  enable  the  manufacturers'  plutocracy  to  win  a  presidential 
election  for  the  protected,  factory  lords.  They  can  not  buy  up  the 
leaders  or  the  rank  and  file  of  the  eight-hour  movement. 

Half  a  century  ago  children  in  our  cities  were  rarely  employed 
outside  their  own  homes;  but  the  census  of  1870  shows  740,000 
boys  under  16  years  and  girls  under  15  years  as  working  for  wages, 
and  the  census  of  1880  shows  1,118,000  boys  and  girls  employed. 
The  enumeration  does  not  give  the  full  number  actually  at  work  in 
remunerative  industries.  In  twelve  leading  mechanical  and  man- 
ufacturing industries,  women  and  children  have  an  almost 
absolute  majority  of  labor  as  against  men.  The  introduction  of 
machinery  into  some  trades  has  thrown  the  labor  largely  out  of  the 
hands  of  adults  into  that  of  children.  In  the  iron  and  steel 
industry  in  the  ten  years  following  1870,  the  employment  of  boys 
increased  from  2,400  to  7,700.  In  Baltimore  the  ratio  of  children 
to  all  other  employes  in  the  cotton  mills  is  1  to  4 ;  in  Augusta, 
Georgia,  1  to  3 ;  in  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania,  1  to  4 ;  in  Brooklyn, 
1  to  3 ;  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  1  to  5 ;  in  Boston,  12  to  17. 
In  the  6  North  Atlantic  States,  in  225  textile  factories  of  special 
prominence,  17  per  cent,  of  the  employes  are  children.  In  thirty- 
six  leading  textile  factories  of  Massachusetts  20  per  cent,  of  the 
operatives  are  children.  The  1,500,000  spindles  of  Fall  Eiver  are 
tended  by  12,500  operatives,  3,000  of  whom  are  not  over  15  years  of 
age.  In  Ehode  Island  children  compose  over  12  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  number  of  the  manufacturing  population,  working  eleven 
hours  a  day.  In  many  mills  premiums  are  paid  to  weavers  for 
extra  work,  and  the  children  toil  over  the  time  recognized  by  the 
law  as  the  limit.  Children  are  found  at  work  as  soon  as  they  can 
help  to  contribute  to  the  general  fund  of  the  family. 

The  textile  industries  of  Pennsylvania  gives  work  to  5,300 
boys  of  15  years  and  under,  and  to  4,300  girls  of  14  years  and 
under,  in  addition  to  27,000  women  and  girls  over  that  age. 
Children  are  at  work  exceptionally  long  hours  in  the  mills,  stores, 
and  shops  of  Philadelphia,  and  among  them  may  be  seen  half- 
starved  young  girls  who  work  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day  ; 
many  of  the  older  ones  work  a  half  day  on  Sunday  in  the  tailoring 
shops  to  keep  soul  and  body  together  on  less  than  $5  a  week.  The 
manufacturers  are  crowding  together,  into  small  space,  many  times 
the  number  there  should  be  placed  at  work  together,  to  breathe  the 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA.  XI 

steam  and  dust  of  the  unventilated  rooms.  In  the  winter  the  hot 
atmosphere  endangers  their  health  indoors,  and  exposes  them  no 
less  to  the  abrupt  change  upon  leaving  the  shop  in  their  scanty 
clothing.  In  the  factories  of  New  Jersey  15,000  children,  between 
8  and  15  years  are  employed.  In  Patterson,  out  of  a  working  popu- 
lation of  20,000,  there  are  over  3,000  children  at  work.  In  the 
tobacco-growing  regions  an  enormous  percentage  of  children  are 
employed.  In  Covington,  Kentucky,  the  ratio  of  children  of  15 
years  and  under,  to  all  others  employed,  is  3  to  7 ;  in  Louisville,  2 
to  5 ;  in  Toledo,  Ohio,  1  to  3 ;  in  Eichmond,  Virginia,  1  to  4.  In 
the  counties  of  eastern  Pennsylvania  a  large  number  of  villages  are 
built  up  by  the  tobacco  trade,  exhibiting  the  evils  of  child  labor  at 
its  worst.  About  half  the  persons  at  work  are  boys  and  girls,  and 
fully  one-fourth  of  the  whole  number  employed  are  children  not 
more  than  15,  and  most  of  them  are  very  much  younger,  who  have 
gone  into  the  factory  at  the  age  of  9.  Even  those  who  are  left  at 
home  have  work  brought  them  from  the  shops. 

During  the  day  and  evening  boys  and  girls  of  6  years  of  age 
engage  themselves  in  piece-work  in  their  "homes."  Children  spend 
twelve  hours  a  day  in  the  vitiated  atmosphere  of  unventilated 
factory  rooms,  losing  their  health  by  the  poisoning  influences  of 
these  tobacco  shops. 

In  North  Carolina  13  per  cent,  of  the  cotton  factory  operatives 
are  children  not  over  15  years  of  age.  In  a  typical  manufacturing 
city  in  Georgia  there  are  ten  cotton  mills,  in  some  of  which  over 
700  hands  are  employed,  nearly  all  of  whom  are  women  and  chil- 
dren. The  industrial  statistics  of  Pennsylvania  report  87,00fr 
employes  in  the  anthracite  regions,  24,000  of  whom  are  boys,  and 
over  one-fourth  of  these  are  15  or  less  years  of  age.  Boys  of  from  6 
to  14  years  of  age  can  earn  45  cents  per  day  picking  slate.  The  labor 
of  driving  mules  in  the  slopes  and  gangways  is  performed  by  boys 
between  the  ages  of  8  and  16  years  at  about  60  cents  a  day.  At  the 
age  of  7  the  boys  are  taken  down  to  work  on  night  shifts  with  their 
fathers,  working  under  the  surface  at  the  depth  of  from  200  to  700 
feet,  breathing  in  the  dampness,  the  poisoned  gases  of  the  coal  and 
powder  smoke,  losing  their  health,  etc. 

The  American  employers  of  our  great  industrial  armies  do  not 
afford  our  boys  and  girls  fair  opportunities  to  learn  skilled  trades. 
It  is  not  the  duty  of  any  competent  person  in  the  shop  to  instruct 


Xn  HISTOKY  OF  THE 

the  boy  or  girl.  The  foreman  is  frequently  a  poor  mechanic,  not 
hired  for  his  proficiency  in  his  trade  and  its  related  occupations 
but  simply  for  his  capacity  in  driving  men,  overworking  and  under- 
paying them.  The  apprentice  or  helper  "skimps"  his  work  in  his 
attempt  to  please  the  rushing  foreman.  Apprenticeship  laws  still 
appear  on  the  statute  books  of  some  States,  and  in  some  workshops 
there  are  youths  calling  themselves  apprentices,  but  the  former  are 
a  dead  letter  and  the  latter  are  free  to  walk  out  when  they  choose. 
American  young  men  and  girls  do  not  bind  themselves  as  appren- 
tices, and  so  the  mechanical  labor  passes  into  the  hands  of  so-called 
foreigners,  who  form  combinations  like  the  Socialistic  Labor  party 
to  abolish  profits  and  interest,  and  other  forms  of  making  money 
by  "smartness." 

The  labor  reformers  insist  upon  free  schools  for  manual  train- 
ing, and  would  establish  public  technical  schools  on  the  same  foot- 
ing as  the  schools  of  natural  science,  medicine,  law,  and  the  fine 
arts.  That  the  public  manual  training  school  and  technical  insti- 
tute are  what  must  replace  the  old  private  and  family  apprentice- 
ship, is  the  opinion  of  all  persons  who  have  studied  the  subject  with 
care.  The  satanic  press  of  the  "protected"  tax-gathering  plutocracy 
would  call  this  Socialism.  But  our  entire  system  of  public  schools 
is  Socialistic  in  principle,  although  not  in  practice,  and  the  people 
are  getting  aroused  to  the  paramount  necessity  of  universal 
education  in  public  schools.  Individualism  has  been  prevalent 
among  our  mixed  population  of  many  nationalities  and  creeds,  the 
reaction  toward  collectivism  has  commenced,  and  the  plutocrats 
•will  soon  live  in  a  different  social  and  political  atmosphere,  where 
their  smartness  will  be  looked  upon  as  criminal,  especially  their 
enslaving  of  250,000  boys  and  girls  at  starvation  wages  and  under 
inhuman  conditions.  No  child  under  15  years  should  be  out  of 
school  in  this  age  of  intellectual  and  mechanical  progress.  Our 
nation  is  rich  enough  to  afford  our  growing  generation  the  facilities 
of  an  education  which  will  fit  them  for  the  duties  of  a  high-pressure 
civilization  and  enable  them  to  compete  in  the  world  market. 

In  the  middle  of  May,  1886,  about  200,000  wage-wrorkers  in 
many  parts  of  the  United  States  had  secured  shorter  hours  and 
other  concessions,  and  the  working  people  are  much  better  situated 
to-day  than  they  were  before  the  spring  of  1886.  In  Chicago  and 
its  suburbs  about  110,000  workers  engaged  in  the  short-hour  move- 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  AMERICA.  XIII 

ment.  Of  these,  about  47,500  gained  concessions  without  much 
interruption  of  work,  namely,  the  packing-house  employes,  clothing 
cutters,  bakers,  brewers,  building  trades,  machinists,  cigar-makers, 
etc.  Bonfield's  interference  at  the  eight-hour  meeting  the  night  of 
May  4,  near  the  Haymarket,  with  180  policemen  rushing  upon  an 
audience  of  about  3,000  men,  affording  an  unknown  destructionist 
an  opportunity  of  throwing  a  deadly  bomb-shell,  caused  a  revulsion 
of  feeling  against  the  eight-hour  agitators,  and  actually  ended  the 
struggle  among  a  great  number  of  trades  and  occupations.  At  the 
meeting  of  the  Eight-Hour  Association,  immediately  after  the 
explosion  of  the  deadly  bomb,  it  was  declared  as  the  sense  of  the 
leaders  that  the  enemies  of  the  working  people  had  influenced  the 
police  bully,  Bonfield,  to  surround  the  public  meeting,  break  it  up, 
and  murder  the  speakers,  so  as  to  intimidate  the  trades  unions  from 
further  attempts  to  shorten  the  hours  of  the  working  day. 

After  Judge  Tuley's  decision  it  is  not  likely  that  Bonfield,  or 
any  other  rowdy  in  police  uniform,  will  dare  rush  with  a  crowd  of 
180  policemen  upon  a  labor  meeting  in  the  open  air  or  in  a  closed 
hall,  with  the  intent  of  breaking  up  a  peaceful  gathering  of  Ameri- 
can citizens. 

JOSEPH  GRUENHUT. 


XIV  HISTORY  OF  THE 


HISTORY  OP  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO. 


IT  WAS  in  March  of  1876,  when  P.  J.  McGuire  and  Comrade 
Loebkert,  as  the  organizers  and  agitators  of  the  Social-Demo- 
cratic party  of  America,  visited  Chicago  and  other  Western 
points  for  the  purpose  of  sowing  the  seed  of  Socialism,  that  I  first 
met  Albert  E.  Parsons.  There  was  a  mass-meeting  on  Saturday  eve- 
ning at  Vorwaerts  Turner  hall,  where  McGuire  spoke,  and  at  the  end 
of  his  eloquent  address  announced  his  intention  of  organizing  an 
English  Section  of  Socialists,  and  invited  all  those  satisfied  with  the 
doctrine  as  expounded  that  evening  to  hand  in  their  names  and  ad- 
dresses as  they  passed  out.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  A  .E.  Parsons, 
John  Swertfeger,  0.  A.  Bishop,  T.  J.  Morgan,  Adolph  Glecker,  and 
myself  embraced  the  opportunity  of  connecting  ourselves  with  the 
Socialistic  movement.  The  next  day  (Sunday)  McGuire  addressed 
another  meeting  at  the  old  Globe  hall  on  Desplaines  street.  After 
his  address  he  invited  all  persons  to  ask  questions  on  any  point  that 
was  not  yet  clear  to  them.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  a  well- 
dressed  man  with  a  clear  accent  rose  and  asked  whether,  in  this 
co-operative  state  as  outlined  by  the  speaker,  all  persons  were  to 
share  alike,  regardless  of  the  amount  they  would  produce.  The 
interrogater  was  A.  E.  Parsons.  The  question  created  the  liveliest 
interest,  as  we  were  all  anxious  to  know  whether  we  had  struck  a 
Communistic,  whack-up-all-around  institution,  in  which  the  parasite 
was  to  find  a  loafers'  paradise  at  the  expense  of  the  industrious 
worker,  or  whether  the  law  of  merit  was  still  to  obtain.  McGuire 
answered  that  the  Social-Democratic  party  only  contemplated  to 
nationalize  land,  the  instruments  of  production,  exchange,  and 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IX  CHICAGO.  XV 

transportation,  rewarding  each  worker,  however,  in  proportion  to 
his  effort.  This  seemed  to  give  general  satisfaction,  and  the  En- 
glish Section  from  that  time  on  was  a  permanent  factor  in  the  labor 
movement  of  Chicago.  Before  this  John  McAuliffe  and  John  Eck- 
ford  were  the  only  English-speaking  Socialists  in  this  city.  Sub- 
sequently Philip  Van  Patten,  John  Paulson,  and  others  joined,  and 
the  agitation  began  in  earnest.  At  this  time  A.  B.  Parsons  and 
John  McAuliffe  were  the  only  ones  capable  of  expounding  in  public 
the  principles  of  the  party  in  the  English  language ;  but  McAuliffe 
was  an  extremist,  unwilling  to  advocate  ameliorative  measures.  The 
Section  "  shelved  "  him,  except  on  great  special  occasions,  and  A. 
E.  Parsons  for  a  long  time  was  practically  the  only  public  English 
speaker  we  had. 

At  this  time  the  English  Socialists  struggled  against  many 
odds.  There  was  the  prejudice  of  the  public  against  Socialism — a 
feeling  the  English  trades  unions  fully  shared— besides,  the  Ger- 
man Socialists  were  suspicious  of  the  English  Section  and  oft-times 
gave  them  to  understand  that  the  damned  Yankees  needed  watch- 
ing. But  the  worst  of  all  was,  we  had  no  English  literature  on 
social-economic  subjects.  The  Socialist,  a  weekly  published  by  the 
party  in  New  York,  was  the  only  food  we  had.  This  paper  contained 
a  series  of  very  able  articles  from  the  pen  of  Victor  Drury,  of  New 
York,  who,  while  not  the  editor,  was  the  major  part  of  the  brains. 
These  articles  have  since  been  revised  and  republished  in  pamphlet 
form,  and  are  entitled:  "The  Polity  of  the  Labor  Movement."  In 
the  fall  of  1876  the  Social-Democratic  party  and  the  Internationals 
met  in  joint  convention  in  Philadelphia  and  formed  the  "  Working- 
men's  Party  of  the  United  States."  The  Socialist  was  subsequently 
called  the  Labor  Standard,  and  J.  P.  McDonnell  succeeded  Comrade 
McGregor  in  the  editorial  chair.  The  English  Section  of  Chicago 
met  every  Monday  evening  to  map  out  a  program  for  public  agita- 
tion and  to  discuss  such  economic  subjects  and  party  methods 
among  themselves  as  the  mental  friction  and  antagonisms  prevail- 
ing within  its  ranks  at  that  time  naturally  produced.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  the  amalgamation  of  the  Internationals  and  Social- 
Democrats  brought  together  two  opposite  elements  of  Socialists. 
The  former  opposed  political  action  as  a  means  of  economic  eman- 
cipation, and  predicted  the  wreck  of  the  party  if  persisted  in,  while 
the  latter  insisted  that  the  ballot  was  the  surest  means  by  which  the 


XVI  HISTORY  OF  THE 

enlightenment  of  the  masses  could  be  secured  and  the  final  overthrow 
of  the  present  capitalistic  system  accomplished.  The  former  advised 
the  members  of  the  party  to  join  trades  unions,  and  through  the 
force  of  economic  organization  secure  concessions  by  degrees,  while 
the  latter  denounced  all  attempts  at  amelioration  under  the  present 
system,  declaring  that  less  hours  of  labor  and  higher  wages  would 
only  cause  the  worker  to  be  more  contented  with  the  wage  system, 
"They  are  getting  too  much  now,"  they  would  explain. 

The  Social-Democratic  element  in  the  party  evidently  desired  a 
speedy  change — a  reorganization  of  society — and  believed  that 
wholesale  hunger  and  destitution  of  the  masses  would  furnish  the 
surplus  steam — discontent — that  would  blow  the  capitalistic  sys- 
tem "to  kingdom  come/'  Hungry  stomachs  and  naked  backs  were 
to  impel  the  army  of  workers  to  assault  the  citadel  of  capital, 
destroy  its  ramparts,  and  erect  upon  its  ruins  the  Eldorado  of  uni- 
versal peace  and  plenty.  To  this  Ira  Stewart  and  others  would 
reply  that  society  was  a  gradual  growth ;  that  you  could  oot  by 
any  magician's  "hocus  pocus"  cry  of  "presto  change"  immediately 
transfer  our  society  into  an  Eden;  that  starving  men  were  not 
brave,  but  cowardly — willing  slaves,  not  "heroes."  Ira  Stewart 
evidently  was  of  opinion  that  the  Englishman  who  would  only  fight 
on  a  full  stomach  manifested  a  great  deal  of  human  nature. 

"In  Heaven's  name,  let's  get  some  supper  now, 
And  then  I'm  with  you  if  you're  for  a  row." 

The  daily  press  paid  little  or  no  attention  to  us  in  those  days. 
We  called  public  meetings  in  all  parts  of  the  city,  but  the  masses 
were  slow  to  move.  Oft-times,  after  posting  bills  and  paying  for 
advertising,  we  were  also  compelled  to  contribute  our  last  nickel  for 
hall  rent,  and  walk  home  instead  of  ride.  At  all  these  meetings  A. 
E.  Parsons  was  the  only  English  speaker.  In  the  spring  of  1877 
the  party  in  Chicago  resolved  to  enter  the  political  arena  as  an 
experiment,  limiting  its  action  to  the  Fifteenth  Ward,  and  nomi- 
nated A.  R.  Parsons  as  its  Aldermanic  candidate. 

On  this  point  we  concentrated  the  party  strength,  brought 
volunteer  ticket  peddlers  from  all  parts  of  the  city,  and  worked  like 
beavers.  For  this  we  were  called  carpet-baggers  and  imported 
foreigners,  because  some  of  us  interfered  in  the  politics  of  a  ward 
in  which  we  did  not  live.  We  polled  over  400  votes — not  enough  to 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  XVII 

elect  our  candidate,  but  the  good  impression  we  made  on  the  more 
thoughtful  citizens  was  regarded  as  a  great  moral  victory.  Our 
influence  as  a  party,  however,  both  in  Chicago  and  elsewhere,  was 
very  limited  until  the  great  railroad  strike  of  1877.  Before,  this 
the  labor  question  was  of  little  or  no  importance  to  the  average  citi- 
zen. The  large  mass  of  our  people  contented  themselves  with  the 
belief  that  in  this  great  and  free  Eepublic  there  was  no  room  for 
real  complaint.  The  idea  that  all  Americans  were  on  an  equal 
footing  seemed  to  be  recognized  as  an  incontrovertible  fact  in  the 
halls  of  legislation,  in  the  press,  and  the  pulpit. 

But  when  the  mutterings  and  demonstrations  of  discontent  at 
Martinsburg,  West  Virginia,  caused  by  a  10  per  cent,  reduction  in 
wages  on  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  railroad,  belched  forth  a  few 
days  later  in  the  City  of  Pittsburgh  in  fire,  bloodshed,  and  destruc- 
tion, with  its  frenzied  populace  on  one  side  and  its  frightened, 
retreating  militia  on  the  other,  and  from  there  swept  across  the 
entire  continent,  with  such  rapidity  that  within  a  few  days  the 
whole  country  was  enveloped  and  presented  a  condition  of  social 
and  industrial  mutiny  that  overwhelmed  and  surprised  in  its 
spontaneity  and  extent  the  closest  observers  of  economic  develop- 
ment, it  on  longer  permitted  us,  as  Americans,  to  thank  God — 
with  our  former  vanity — that  we  were  not  like  other  nations. 
Pittsburgh,  with  its  sea  of  fire,  caused  by  its  burning  freight  cars, 
round-houses,  and  depots,  was  the  calcium  light  that  illumined  tbe 
skies  of  our  social  and  industrial  life,  and  revealed  the  pinched  faces 
of  the  workers  and  the  opulence,  arrogance,  and  unscrupulousness 
of  the  rich. 

The  labor  question,  which  up  to  this  time  was  considered  insig- 
nificant, rose  to  a  grave  and  important  problem.  The  strike  reached 
Chicago  in  all  its  fury  July  23. 

The  members  of  the  Workingmen's  Party  of  the  United  States 
everywhere  took  advantage  of  this  tidal  wave  of  popular  discontent, 
and  called  meetings  for  the  purpose  of  presenting  to  an  astonished 
populace  the  cause  and  the  remedy  of  this  general  upheaval.  On 
July  25  we  called  a  mass-meeting  on  Market  square,  at  which  A. 
E.  Parsons  and  John  McAuliffe  made  the  principal  speeches.  The 
city  had  been  under  the  greatest  excitement  for  several  days,  and 
the  announcement  of  this  meeting  brought  together  at  least  40,000 
people.  On  occasions  of  great  public  excitement  Albert  R.  Parsons 


XVIII  HISTORY  OF  THE 

was  a  host  as  a  public  speaker.  His  capacity  at  times  like  these  to 
address  himself  to  the  feelings  of  the  workers  was  something  mar- 
velous. The  Inter-Ocean  declared  that  the  subsequent  mischief 
during  that  strike  in  Chicago  was  all  due  to  Parsons'  speech.  The 
next  evening  another  meeting  was  called  at  the  same  place,  but  was 
dispersed  by  the  police,  who  demolished  the  speaker's  stand  into 
kindling  wood  and  clubbed  the  unarmed  workers  right  and  left. 
Fred  Courth,  a  cigar-maker,  was  knocked  senseless.  We  carried 
him  up  in  the  old  Vorbote  office,  dressed  his  wound,  which  con- 
sisted of  a  deep  gash  in  his  head,  the  marks  of  which  are  visible  to 
this  day.  The  same  day  (July  26)  the  Furniture-Workers'  Union 
called  a  meeting  at  Vorwaerts  Turner  hall  at  the  request  of  their 
bosses,  who  desired  a  mutual  conference  for  the  settlement  of  what- 
ever grievances  were  between  them.  The  police,  hearing  of  this 
meeting,  immediately  proceeded  to  break  it  up.  Mr.  Wasserman, 
the  then  proprietor  of  the  hall,  attempted  to  prevent  them  from 
entering,  but  they  knocked  him  down,  over  his  prostrate  form  broke 
through  the  door,  and,  without  any  notice  to  the  assemblage,  com- 
menced shooting  and  clubbing.  One  of  the  members  of  the  union 
(Tessman)  was  shot  dead,  while  many  others  were  badly  wounded. 
The  matter  was  subsequently  made  a  test  case  in  the  Courts, 
and  Judge  McAllister  rendered  one  of  his  famous  decisions  on  the 
right  of  public  assemblage.  I  have  often  thought  of  this  case  in 
connection  with  the  Anarchist  trial.  It  was  claimed  by  the  friends 
of  the  defendants,  and  never  successfully  refuted,  that  Bonfield,  in 
ordering  the  attack  on  the  Haymarket  meeting,  assaulted  the  right 
of  public  assemblage,  and  that  whatever  means  were  employed  by 
the  citizens  there  assembled  to  repel  this  invasion,  were  both  justifi- 
able and  lawful.  To  this  the  friends  of  the  police  replied  that  if 
the  attack  was  unlawful  they  could  find  redress  in  the  Courts.  But 
what  redress  did  the  Furniture- Workers'  Union  secure  for  the 
murder  of  its  member  Tessman?  Poverty,  as  a  rule,  is  at  a 
discount  in  our  Courts,  and  the  long  delays  which  can  be  secured 
by  money  usually  result  in  defeat  for  those  who  have  no  means. 
The  great  railroad  strike  of  1877  secured  us  the  public  ear.  True, 
the  press  and  pulpit,  with  but  few  exceptions,  declared  that  it  was 
the  work  of  Communistic  agitators.  But  there  were  others  who 
viewed  it  as  an  alarming  evidence  of  the  concentration  of  wealth 
and  the  rapid  changes  of  our  economic  life.  That  fall  the  party 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  IXX 

nominated  a  full  county  ticket,  with  Frank  A.  Stauber  as  County 
Treasurer  and  Albert  K.  Parsons  as  County  Clerk,  and  polled  8,000 
votes.  In  the  spring  of  '78  we  elected  Frank  A.  Stauber  as  the 
Alderman  of  the  Fourteenth  Ward,  being  the  first  public  officer 
elected  by  the  Socialistic  party.  (A.  li.  Parsons  was  defeated  in 
this  election  as  Aldermanic  candidate  of  the  Fifteenth  Ward  by  a 
small  majority,  and  it  was  the  general  belief  that  he  was  counted 
out).  This  gave  us  a  prestige,  and  everything  was  on  the  upward 
boom.  In  the  fall  of  1878  we  elected  four  members  to  the  State 
Legislature.  Our  members  were  everywhere  active  in  trades 
unions,  and  it  seemed  for  awhile  as  if  the  steady  progress  and  final 
triumph  of  the  Socialistic  party  was  soon  to  be  realized.  This  same 
fall  we  established  the  Socialist,  an  English  weekly  edited  by  Frank 
Hirth  and  A.  B.  Parsons. 

In  the  spring  of  1879  we  nominated  a  full  city  ticket,  with  Dr. 
Schmidt  for  Mayor,  and  succeeded  in  polling  12,000  votes,  electing 
three  additional  Aldermen,  which  gave  the  party  four  representa- 
tives in  the  Common  Council  of  Chicago. 

One  of  the  most  notable  incidents  showing  the  rapid  growth  of 
the  party  was  the  celebration  of  the  Paris  Commune  during  this 
same  spring.  The  committee  of  arrangements  secured  the  Exposi- 
tion building,  with  a  capacity  of  40,000,  but  so  great  was  the  jam 
that  it  was  impossible  to  carry  out  the  program  of  singing,  dan- 
cing, and  drilling.  It  was  estimated  that  at  least  60,000  people  vis- 
ited the  Exposition  building  that  night,  while  thousands,  after  wait- 
ing on  the  outside  for  hours,  unable  to  gain  admission,  returned 
home. 

The  community  was  startled  at  the  boldness  of  our  propositions 
in  demanding  collective  (Governmental)  control  of  land,  means  of 
transportation,  communication,  and  production,  and  the  dash  which 
characterized  our  effort  in  making  converts  to  this  scheme  of  social 
and  industrial  emancipation.  But  the  party  had  reached  the  zenith 
of  its  power  as  a  political  factor.  A  few  months  later  we  partici- 
pated— unofficially — in  the  judicial  election  which  returned  Judge 
McAllister  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  with  Barnum,  Tuley,  and 
Moran.  After  this  election  charges  of  improper  conduct  were  made 
against  some  of  our  members,  creating  internal  strife,  and  our  party 
influence  began  to  decline.  In  the  spring  of  '80  we  re-elected  Frank 
A.  Stauber  to  the  Council  by  a  majority  of  thirty-one  votes,  but  his 


XX  HISTORY  OF  THE 

opponent,  who  belonged  to  the  element  of  "fine  workers,"  was  not 
willing  to  accept  this  popular  verdict.  At  the  Seventh  precinct 
Stauber  had  received  109  votes  to  his  opponent's  100. 

The  results  were  declared  at  the  precinct  in  the  presence  of  the 
three  Election  Judges,  two  Clerks,  party  challengers,  and  a  police 
officer.  Two  of  the  Judges,  Walsh  and  Gibbs,  took  the  ballot-box 
and  tally  sheet  home,  and  on  learning  that  the  election  had 
resulted  in  the  defeat  of  their  candidate  (J.  J.  McGrath)  they 
stuffed  the  box  and  changed  the  result  on  the  tally  sheet  so  as  to 
give  Stauber  only  59  votes  and  J.  J.  McGrath  150. 

This  change  gave  McGrath  a  majority  and  he  was  seated  by 
the  Council.  A  long  litigation  ensued,  costing  the  workingmen  about 
$2,000  and  keeping  Mr.  Stauber  out  of  his  seat  for  nearly  a  year. 
Stauber  was  finally  recognized  by  the  Courts  as  the  duly  elected 
Alderman  from  the  Fourteenth  Ward.  Walsh  and  Gibbs,  the  two 
Election  Judges  who  had  stuffed  the  ballot-box  and  forged  the  tally 
sheet,  were  tried  for  the  offence  and  acquitted,  Judge  Gardner  declar- 
ing that,  while  they  had  violated  the  law,  there  had  been  no  evidence 
showing  that  that  had  been  their  intent. 

This  circumstance  did  more,  perhaps,  than  all  the  other  things 
combined  to  destroy  the  faith  of  the  Socialists  in  Chicago  in  the 
efficiency  of  the  ballot. 

From  that  time  on  the  advocates  of  physical  force  as  the  only 
means  of  industrial  emancipation  found  a  wide  field  of  action 
for  the  dissemination  and  acceptance  of  their  ideas.  The  Presiden- 
tial election  of  1880  also  tended  to  disintegrate  the  party  as  a 
political  factor.  As  a  party,  we  had  participated  in  the  National 
convention  that  nominated  Gen.  Weaver,  and  it  was  the  opinion  of 
a  large  majority  of  the  English-speaking  Socialists  that  a  fusion 
with  the  Greenback  party  would  give  us  a  wider,  and  for  that 
reason  a  more  useful,  field  for  the  propogation  of  our  ideas — that 
we  would  establish  a  feeling  of  fellowship  among  people  with  whom 
there  was  already  much  in  common.  But  many  of  the  Germans, 
under  the  leadership  of  Paul  Grottkau  and  some  of  the  English, 
among  them  A.  E.  Parsons,  bolted,  and  from  that  time  on  dated 
the  actual  schism  in  the  Socialistic  party.  The  bolters  to  the  can- 
didacy of  Gen.  Weaver  did  not  yet  oppose  politics  as  a  principle, 
but  nominated  a  local  ticket  of  their  own.  They  still  believed  in 
the  State. 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  XXI 

The  philosophy  of  Anarchy  in  its  modern  sense  was  scarcely 
known.  "Phillip"  had  discussed  its  principles  with  Mr.  Smart  in 
the  columns  of  the  Irish  World,  and  it  was  this  controversy  which 
created  the  first  doubt  in  my  mind  as  to  the  feasibility  of  State 
Socialism.  But  it  was  not  until  Benjamin  K.  Tucker,  of  Boston, 
issued  his  Liberty — which  I  have  always  regarded  as  an  epoch  in  the 
intellectual  progress  of  the  movement — that  the  principle  of  volun- 
tary association,  in  contradistinction  to  State  control,  began  to 
make  systematic  converts.  The  advent  of  Johann  Most  in  America 
also  produced  a  change  of  thought  or  feeling  among  many  of  the 
German  Socialists  "agin  the  Government."  But  the  Communistic 
ideas  of  Most  are  so  exceedingly  authoritarian  that  I  have  never 
regarded  him  as  a  consistent  opponent  of  the  State.  "A  rose  by 
any  other  name  would  smell  as  sweet." 

In  the  spring  of  1881  each  of  the  two  factions  of  Socialists  in 
Chicago  nominated  a  city  ticket.  I  was  nominated  for  Mayor  by 
the  element  that  had  supported  Gen.  Weaver  for  President,  and 
Timothy  O'Meara  was  nominated  by  the  other  side.  The  cam- 
paign was  one  of  hostility  to  each  other,  rather  than  to  the  common 
enemy,  and  was  the  most  unpleasant  experience  I  ever  had  in  the 
movement.  From  this  time  on  everything  seemed  to  be  in  a  condi- 
tion of  unrest,  uncertainty,  and  inertia.  The  English  Section  had 
dwindled  down  to  a  corporal's  guard :  some  of  its  most  active  mem- 
bers had  left  it,  for  one  cause  or  another,  until  its  very  existence 
seemed  to  be  extinct,  its  leaders  having  retired  from  active  partici- 
pation in  the  movement.  However,  during  this  period  of  disinte- 
gration a  new  thought  was  developing  and  new  lines  of  action 
projected.  State  Socialism,  which  heretofore  had  only  been 
opposed  by  the  friends  of  usury  and  plunder,  was  now  being 
assailed  through  the  columns  of  Liberty  by  Benjamin  R.  Tucker 
and  his  able  corps  of  writers  so  vigorously  that  those  readers  who 
had  formerly  defended  Government  control  were  fairly  stunned. 

In  1883  I  delivered  a  lecture  before  the  Liberal  League  of 
Chicago  on  "Individualism  as  Contrasted  with  State  Socialism  in 
the  Solution  of  Social  and  Industrial  Problems."  I  repudiated  my 
former  belief —State  Socialism — and  defended  competition  and  the 
institution  of  private  property.  The  only  reply  worthy  of  notice, 
from  one  of  the  State  Socialists,  was  that  I  was  a  renegade.  Joe 
Labadie,  of  Detroit,  renounced  State  Socialism  soon  after,  while 


XXII  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Lizzie  M.  Swank  and  T.  F.  Hagerty,  who  tried  to  save  the  ship  of 
State  through  the  columns  of  the  Radical  Review,  found  their  craft 
sinking  from  the  fatal  attacks  of  the  pen  of  A.  H.  Simpson.  Johann 
Most  and  Paul  Grottkau  met  in  public  debate  on  the  same  subject, 
Most  making  the  claim  that  in  all  the  revolutions  of  the  past  the 
people  were  again  enslaved  through  subsequent  Parliamentary 
chicanery:  therefore  Parliament  must  be  abolished.  The  Pittts- 
burgh  convention,  the  resignation  of  Paul  Grottkau,  and  the  suc- 
cession of  August  Spies  as  the  editor  of  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung  and 
the  founding  of  the  Alarm  were  events,  following  each  other  in  rapid 
succession,  manifesting  the  wonderful  activity  of  the  Revolutionary 
Anarchists.  Parsons,  Spies,  and  Fielden  availed  themselves  of 
every  opportunity  and  before  every  society  to  disseminate  their 
doctrines,  whether  before  the  Liberal  League  or  the  Methodist 
ministry.  C.  C.  Post  informed  me,  one  day  in  the  winter  of  '85, 
that  the  West  Side  Philosophic  Society,  founded  by  the  Eev.  Dr. 
Thomas  and  composed  almost  exclusively  of  the  members  of  the 
People's  Church,  had  on  their  program  Modern  Socialism,  and  they 
desired  the  presence  of  some  of  the  representatives  of  the  various- 
Socialistic  schools.  Post  left  the  matter  with  me,  and  I  invited 
Parsons,  Spies,  and  A.  H.  Simpson.  Parsons  was  engaged  that 
night  and  could  not  go.  Judge  Boyles,  a  member  of  the  society, 
opened  the  discussion,  but  he  knew  no  more  about  Socialism  than 
a  Hottentot.  Our  participation  in  the  debate,  however,  created 
such  intense  linterest  that  the  society  concluded  to  continue  the 
subject  at  its  next  meeting.  Parsons  accompanied  us  on  this, 
occasion,  and  I  shall  never  forget  the  dramatic  and  tantalizing 
speech  he  made.  The  society  was  the  "elite"  of  the  West  Side. 
Mr.  Dean,  its  President,  is  a  millionaire  lumber  merchant ; 
Col.  Waterman — since  elected  Judge — Judge  Boyles,  Dr.  Thomas, 
and  other  Colonels,  Generals,  Judges,  professors,  etc.,  with  their 
wives  and  daughters,  bedecked  with  fair  jewels  and  fine  raiment, 
composed  our  audience.  Parsons  spoke  last,  and  as  he  stepped 
forward,  reviewing  for  a  moment  in  silence  the  splendid  audience 
before  him,  his  eye  gleamed  with  triumph  and  his  face  wore  a 
smile  of  supreme  satisfaction  at  the  opportunity  afforded  him  of 
indicting  the  "upper- tendom"  in  their  own  presence.  After  crack- 
ing a  few  jokes  at  the  expense  of  Judge  Boyles,  he  began  by  saying : 
"I  am  not  in  the  habit  of  speaking  to  men  and  women  dressed  in 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  XXIII 

such  fine  raiment.  The  men  I  speak  to  nightly  are  the  hard-fisted, 
greasy  mechanics  and  laborers  of  our  city,  with  the  smell  of  shav- 
ings about  their  clothes.  They  wear  no  broadcloth — their  constant 
struggle  is  to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  The  women  I  speak  to 
are  those  who  work  from  ten  to  twelve  hours  daily  for  a  pittance, 
and  must  be  satisfied  with  an  ordinary  dress.  But  it  is  these 
greasy  mechanics  and  these  poor  women  that  weave  your  broad- 
cloth, your  silk  and  satin ;  that  shape  into  form  your  costly  bon- 
nets and  feathers,  and  grind  into  exquisite  beauty  and  shape  the 
jewels  I  see  about  me,  but  which  they  cannot  wear."  With  these 
preliminary  remarks  he  secured  the  closest  attention  to  one  of  the 
most  eloquent,  cutting,  and  defiant  speeches  I  ever  heard. 
Parsons  was  an  extraordinary  speaker  under  extraordinary  circum- 
stances. During  the  telegraphers'  strike  of  1888  representatives 
of  the  various  trades  unions  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  them  at 
their  hall  to  encourage  them  with  speeches  and  otherwise.  Parsons 
and  I,  with  a  number  of  other  friends,  called  on  them  one  night. 
The  hall  was  packed.  Some  one  informed  the  Chairman  that  Mr. 
Parsons,  from  Typographical  Union  No.  16,  was  in  the  room.  The 
Chairman  called  on  him  to  address  the  meeting,  and  as  he  stepped 
forward  1  saw  by  the  flash  of  his  eye  that  an  eloquent  address  was 
in  store  for  the  audience.  He  began  by  referring  to  the  close  affinity 
between  the  men  and  women  who  manipulate  the  keys  and  send 
the  messages  across  the  wires  and  the  compositors  who  receive  them 
as  "copy"  and  put  them  into  print.  As  he  proceeded  his  whole  soul 
became  enveloped  with  the  fire  of  his  subject,  and  like  a  torrent 
sweeping  down  from  the  mountain  side,  carrying  everything  before 
it,  so  he  swept  down  on  that  American  audience  of  1,200  men  and 
women,  carrying  them  with  him  through  every  impulse  of  his 
ardent  nature.  It  would  be  impossible  to  attempt  an  extended 
reproduction  of  this  speech.  It  was  one  of  those  extraordinary 
outbursts  of  eloquence  that  consumed  itself  in  its  own  fire,  leaving 
the  hearer  spell-bound  and  dazed  from  the  flash  of  its  light. 

When  the  eight-hour  movement  of  1886  began  to  be  interest- 
ing the  Eevolutionary  Anarchists  did  not  take  to  it.  In  fact,  the 
large  majority  of  its  leaders  considered  it  as  a  sort  of  soothing  syrup 
for  babies,  but  of  no  consequence  to  grown  men.  With  Parsons 
it  was  a  different  thing.  He  had  been  the  student  of  the  philosophy 
of  Ira  Stewart  for  years,  and  was  one  of  a  few  men  who  understood 


XXIV  HISTORY  OF  THE 

the  full  import  of  reduced  hours.  He  believed  that  the  success  of 
the  eight-hour  movement  would,  if  conceded  by  employers,  con- 
stitute the  bridge  over  which  humanity  could  march  toward  a  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  problem.  The  charge  made  that  the  Kevolu- 
tionary  Anarchists  only  used  the  eight-hour  movement  to  preci- 
pitate a  violent  revolution  may  be  true  as  to  some ;  if  so,  they 
must  have  been  insane ;  but  it  was  not  true  as  to  Parsons.  From 
an  interview  of  March  13,  1886,  in  the  Chicago  Daily  News,  I  make 
the  following  extract : 

"The  movement,"  he  said,  "to  reduce  the  work-hours  is  intended  by  its 
projectors  to  give  a  peaceful  solution  to  the  difficulties  between  capitalists 
and  laborers.  I  have  always  held  that  there  were  two  ways  to  settle  this 
trouble — either  by  peaceable  or  violent  methods.  Reduced  hours— or  eight 
hours — is  a  peace-offering.  *  *  *  Fewer  hours  means  more  pay.  Eeduced 
hours  is  the  only  measure  of  economic  [reform  which  consults  the  interest  of 
laborers  as  consumers.  Now,  this  means  a  higher  standard  of  living  for  the 
producers,  which  can  only  be  acquired  by  possessing  and  consuming  a  larger 
share  of  their  own  product.  This  would  diminish  the  profits  of  the  labor 
exploiters." 

It  has  often  been  said  that  had  the  bomb  not  exploded  on  the 
Haymarket  the  eight-hour  movement  would  have  been  a  success. 
This  is  a  serious  mistake.  There  were  two  weak  points  connected 
with  the  movement,  either  one  of  which  was  fatal :  First,  the  dele- 
gates to  the  Federation  of  Trades,  which  convened  in  Chicago  in 
October  1885,  and  designated  May  1,  1886,  for  the  inauguration 
of  the  eight-hour  day,  returned  home,  after  passing  this  resolution 
and  went  to  sleep.  Boston,  Baltimore,  and  Milwaukee  were  the 
only  cities  outside  of  Chicago  in  which  there  was  any  serious 
attempt  to  demand  it.  Second,  the  March  circular  of  T.  V.  Powderly, 
informing  the  Order  that  the  demand  to  establish  an  eight-hour 
work-day  did  not  emanate  from  the  Knights  of  Labor,  but  from 
another  organization,  intimating  that  he  looked  on  the  movement 
with  disfavor,  prevented  thousands  of  Knights  from  participating. 
But,  not  satisfied  with  impeding  its  progress  before  the  1st  of  May, 
he  declared  at  the  Eichmond  General  Assembly  in  October  that 
"the  very  discussion  of  the  immediate  introduction  of  the  eight-hour 
day  had  UNSETTLED  BUSINESS."  Armed  with  this  excerpt  from  his 
annual  address  the  Chicago  packers  determined  to  wrench  from 
their  employees  the  eight-hour  system  they  had  gained,  and  by  the 
aid  of  Powderly's  subsequent  dispatch  ordering  a  surrender  under 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  XXV 

penalty  of  expulsion,  the  packers  succeeded  in  forcing  them  back  to 
ten  hours,  victimizing  their  leaders  and  disrupting  their  organiza- 
tion. 

Oh,  shades  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  ! 
Oh,  spirits  of  the  mighty  dead  of  all  ages  and  times,  who  have  laid 
your  lives  on  the  altar  of  human  liberty,  and  lived  for  the  larger 
freedom  of  the  world,  where  would  have  been  its  progress  had  you 
faltered  in  your  work  because  it  might  have  "unsettled  business  !" 

As  the  Haymarket  meeting,  the  explosion  of  the  bomb,  the 
escape  of  Parsons,  his  indictment  with  his  comrades  forthe  murder 
of  Mathias  J.  Degan,  his  voluntary  return,  trial,  conviction,  and 
execution,  with  all  its  extraordinary  incidents,  will  be  treated  quite 
fully  by  his  wife  and  others,  I  will  leave  that  untouched  except  in 
one  or  two  minor  incidents. 

A.  E.  Parsons  joined  the  Knights  of  Labor  in  1877,  while  visit- 
ing Indianapolis,  Indiana,  and  was  initiated  by  Calvin  A.  Light,  since 
deceased.  For  many  years  he  was  a  member  of  "old  400,"  the  first 
local  in  Chicago.  When  it  lapsed,  in  1885,  he  transferred  to  Local 
Assembly  1307,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  until  November  11,  1887. 

The  General  Assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  at  Eichmond 
passed  a  resolution  asking  mercy  for  the  condemned  Anarchists. 
The  prisoners,  particularly  Parsons,  who  was  the  only  member  of 
the  Order,  did  not  want  mercy,  but  justice.  A  year  later,  at  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  at  Minneapolis,  Minnesota,  the  time  having  arrived 
for  decisive  action,  James  E.  Quinn,  of  District  Assembly  49,  intro- 
duced a  resolution  against  capital  punishment,  and  asked  that  the 
General  Assembly  take  steps  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  execution  of 
the  Chicago  Anarchists.  Powderly  ruled  it  out  of  order.  On  an 
appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  chair,  by  representative  Evans  of 
District  Assembly  3,  of  Pittsburgh,  the  entire  subject  became  a 
matter  for  discussion.  Powderly,  as  usual,  spoke  last,  and  made  a 
bitter  attack  on  the  condemned  men.  He  called  them  cowards ;  said 
that  Parsons  had  abused  him ;  that  he  had  documentary  evidence 
from  Gen.  W.  H.  Parsons  establishing  their  guilt.  He  introduced 
newspaper  articles,  notably  one  containing  a  purported  circular  of 
Burnette  Haskell.  He  closed  his  lengthy  tirade  of  abuse  with  great 
flourish  and  emphasis,  declaring  that  if  the  General  Assembly  did 
not  stand  by  him  he  would  not  abide  by  its  decision ;  he  would  not 
permit  his  tongue  to  be  tied,  but  would  tell  all  he  knew.  By  this  he 


XXVI  HISTORY  OF  THE 

gave  the  delegates  to  understand  that  he  had  important  informa- 
tion and  would  turn  informer  if  he  was  not  sustained.  When  he  was 
through  one  of  his  automatic  dummies  moved  "the  previous  ques- 
tion" thereby  preventing  any  explanation  of  the  Haskell  circular^ 
which  had  no  connection  whatever  with  the  Anarchist  case.  Its 
introduction  was  a  gross  impropriety  and  was  merely  used  by  this 
tricky  parliamentary  mountebank  as  a  means  of  arousing  the  pas- 
sion and  prejudice  of  the  General  Assembly.  On  roll  call  52  mem- 
bers voted  against  the  decision  of  the  Chair,  he  being  sustained  by 
a  large  majority.  Why  did  not  Powderly  rule  the  subject  out  of 
order  at  Eichmond  ?  Was  it  because  he  was  looking  for  an  increase 
of  salary  to  $5,000  per  annum  and  could  not  afford  to  oppose 
District  Assembly  49,  with  its  sixty-two  delegates  who  championed 
the  resolution  for  clemency,  and  whose  votes  he  needed  ?  Such  a 
ruling  at  that  time  might  have  "unsettled  business." 

Hugh  Pentacost  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kimball  had  the  courage  to 
protest  against  the  wholesale  execution  of  social  agitators,  though 
it  compelled  them  to  resign  their  pastorates  from  wealthy  and  in- 
fluential congregations.  Col.  Eobert  G.  Ingersoll,  the  infidel,  who 
expects  no  future  reward  for  magnanimous  conduct,  raised  his  voice 
against  the  execution  of  this  terrible  sentence,  regardless  of  the 
wishes  of  his  wealthy  clients. 

But  T.  V.  Powderly,  the  Christian,  worshiper  at  the  shrine  of 
the  lowly  Jesus,  said  Parsons  had  abused  him,  and  in  this  supreme 
hour,  when  he  might  have  manifested  a  small  share  of  his  Master's 
love  and  forgiveness,  used  his  power  to  gratify  his  revenge. 

This  llth  of  November,  1887,  has  passed  into  history,  and  marks 
the  chief  tragedy,  of  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  trial  of  Spies,  Parsons,  et  al.  is  over  and  the  verdict  of  the  jury 
executed,  but  the  trial  of  the  judgment  is  still  going  on.  Commun- 
ities and  nations,  like  individuals,  are  sometimes  intoxicated  and 
commit  deeds  they  are  ashamed  of  when  they  return  to  their  sober 
senses.  It  was  in  such  a  frenzy  of  revenge  that  this  nation  executed 
Mrs.  Suratt  at  the  close  of  the  War.  We  look  with  pride  at  our 
record  of  magnamity  towards  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  associates,  but 
remember  only  in  shame  and  humiliation  the  execution  of  this 
woman.  I  was  only  a  boy  then,  but  it  seemed  a  if  1  could  see  the 
spirit  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  with  his  face  full  of  sorrow  and  pain, 
drop  a  tear  of  sympathy  and  regret  upon  her  bier.  The  sons 


LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO.  XXVII 

and  daughters  of  Virginia  do  not  commemorate,  with  poetry  and 
oratory,  the  greatness  of  their  State  in  hanging  John  Brown.  In 
the  history  of  her  worthy  achievements  and  triumphs  this  event  has 
no  page. 

Is  history  to  repeat  itself  in  the  Anarchist  case  ?  Will  humanity 
in  the  future,  when  looking  backward,  regard  their  execution  as  an 
evidence  of  the  barbarism  of  our  time  ?  But  aside  from  this,  what 
will  be  its  influence  in  shaping  the  social  and  industrial  destiny  of 
mankind  ?  Will  it  hasten  or  delay  the  solution  of  those  vexed  prob- 
lems of  capital  and  labor  which  confront  us?  Will  it  increase  the 
bitterness  already  existing  between  the  classes  until  each  approaches 
the  other  with  malice  and  revenge,  or  will  it  hasten  the  time  of  an 
awakened  conscience  everywhere  to  deal  fairly  and  earnestly  with 
the  problems  of  the  hour  ?  Luther  and  the  Kef ormation  gave  us 
liberty  of  conscience,  breaking  the  chains  of  our  spiritual  slavery 
and  establishing  the  right  of  private  judgment ;  Jefferson,  Paine, 
Franklin,  and  their  associates  gave  us  political  freedom ;  but  as 
neither  the  mind  nor  the  soul  can  be  truly  free  so  long  as  the  body 
is  chained  to  a  condition  of  industrial  dependence  or  slavery — which 
is  our  present  condition — it  therefore  devolves  upon  us  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  to  solve  the  problem  of  industrial  freedom,  giving  to 
all  persons  free  opportunities  to  apply  all  their  faculties  and  powers 
to  the  natural  resources  about  them  for  their  own  well-being  and 
happiness.  Whether  this  can  be  accomplished  through  the  gradual 
and  peaceful  process  of  evolution,  or  whether  it  will  be  borne  through 
the  storm  and  stress  of  revolution,  will  depend  largely  upon  our 
ability  of  awakening  the  public  mind  from  its  apathy. 

We  are  living  in  an  age  of  universal  unrest.  The  spirit  of  doubt 
and  inquiry  is  sowing  the  seed  of  discontent  with  things  that  be. 
Institutions  hallowed  with  age  are  placed  on  trial.  The  justice  of 
grinding  little  children's  bones  and  blood  and  life  into  gold  in  our 
modern  bastiles  of  labor,  so  that  a  few  might  riot  in  midnight  orgies 
is  being  questioned  by  some.  Land-lords  and  usurers  are  being 
denounced  as  parasites  whose  palaces  are  built  with  the  plunder, 
broken  hopes,  and  tears  of  the  common  people ;  Government  itself 
is  charged  as  being  the  source  of  iniquity,  a  machine  through  which 
human  vulture s  are  enabled  to  levy  tribute,  confer  privileges,  restrict 
the  freedom  of  trade,  and  through  diverse  ways  maintain  and  en- 
force a  system  of  legalized  plunder  and  fraud  against  their  fellow- 


XXVIIJ  HISTORY  OF  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT  IN  CHICAGO. 

men.  Society  everywhere  is  in  a  state  of  perturbation,  each  revolu- 
lution  of  the  printing  press  but  intensifies  the  momentum  of  its 
discontent.  Nothing  is  accepted  as  sacred  by  this  young  giant  of 
modern  iconoclasm  that  does  not  consult  MAN'S  happiness  here  and 
now. 

"Goodness  is  alone  immortal, 
Evil  was  not  made  to  last." 

GEORGE  A.  SCHILLING. 
CHICAGO,  February  26,  1889. 


AUTHOR  S  NOTE. 


AUTHOR'S   NOTE. 


The  early  Christians  took  the  cross 
Upon  which  their  Savior  bled, 

And  withered  nations  now  attest 
The  terror  of  its  red. 

Let  labor  where  they  hang  her  sons 

Take  up  the  gallows  tree, 
And  bravely  bear  the  double  cross 

To  make  the  vrholo  world  free. 

— W.  C.  Marshall. 


In  preparing  the  Life  of  Albert  R.  Parsons  for  publication  I 
have  been  actuated  by  one  desire  alone,  viz :  That  I  might  demon- 
strate to  every  one,  the  most  prejudiced  as  well  as  the  most  liberal 
minds :  First,  that  my  husband  was  no  aider,  nor  abettor,  nor 
counsellor  of  crime  in  any  sense.  Second,  that  he  knew  nothing  of 
nor  had  anything  to  do  with  the  preparation  for  the  Haymarket 
meeting,  and  that  the  Haymarket  meeting  was  intended  to  be 
peaceable,  and  was  peaceable  until  interferred  with  by  the  police. 
Third,  that  Mr.  Parsons'  connection  with  the  labor  movement  was 
purely  and  simply  for  the  purpose  of  bettering  the  condition  of  his 
fellow-men ;  that  he  gave  his  time,  talents,  and  at  last  his  life,  to 
this  cause. 

In  order  to  make  these  facts  undeniable,  I  obtained  articles 
from  persons  holding  avowedly  adverse  views  with  his,  but  who 
were  nevertheless  willing  to  testify  to  his  innocence  of  the  crime  for 
which  he  suffered  death,  and  his  sterling  integrity  as  a  man. 


AUTHOR  S  NOTE. 

It  has  been  the  endeavor  of  the  author  to  make  the  present 
work  not  only  biographical,  but  historical — a  work  which  might  be 
relied  upon  as  an  authority  by  all  future  writers  upon  the  matters 
contained  in  it.  Hence  nothing  has  been  admitted  to  its  pages  that 
is  not  absolutely  correct,  so  far  as  it  was  possible  for  me  to  verify 
it  by  close  scrutiny  of  all  matter  treated.  And  for  this  reason  I 
ask  the  public  to  read  its  pages  carefully,  for  in  this  way  they  will 
become  acquainted  with  the  inmost  thoughts  of  one  of  the  noblest 
characters  of  which  history  bears  record. 

There  is  one  man  whose  name  and  life  was  so  intimately  inter- 
woven with  one  of  the  stirring  periods  of  this  country's  history 
that  that  history  could  not  be  written  if  his  name  were  omitted. 
That  man  is  Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant.  His  biographers  record  no  act 
of  his  life  with  more  praise  than  the  magnanimous  manner  in 
which  he  treated  the  Rebel  General,  Lee,  when  the  latter  surren- 
dered his  sword  to  him.  Suppose  Grant  had  taken  the  proffered 
sword  and  stabbed  his  antagonist  with  it?  There  would  have  been 
no  word  too  detestable  to  have  attached  to  his  name.  Albert  E. 
Parsons  surrendered  his  sword  to  the  wild  mob  of  millionaires  when 
he  walked  into  Court  and  asked  for  a  fair  trial  by  a  jury  of  his 
peers.  Yet  the  proud  State  of  Illinois  murdered  him  under  the 
guise  of  "Law  and  Order;"  foully  murdered  this  innocent  man. 
And  upon  the  heart  of  her  then  Governor  (Oglesby),  who  completed 
the  atrocity  by  ratifying  the  vile  conspiracy  conducted  by  the  wild 
howls  of  the  millionaire  rabble,  by  signing  the  death  warrants  of 
men  who  he,  as  a  lawyer,  knew  were  innocent,  there  is  not  "one 
damned  spot,"  but,  five,  to  "out." 

Thus  it  is  that  history  repeats  itself.  In  this  case  it  was  the 
old,  old  cry :  "Away  with  them ;  they  preach  a  strange  doctrine ! 
Crucify  them  !"  But  the  grand  cause  for  which  they  perished  still 
lives. 

THE  AUTHOR.     . 
CHICAGO,  February  22,  1889. 


"The  working  classes  are  ignorant  because  they  are  poor,  and  poor  because  they  are 
robbed." 

"The  more  you  work  the  less  you  will  have,  and  the  leas  you  will  have  to  do." 

— ALBERT  B.  PARSONS. 


PART  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ALBEKT  E.  PAESONS'  ANCESTOES. 

HEROES  OF  Two  CENTURIES  FOR  EELIGIOUS  AND  POLITICAL  FREE- 
DOM— HIMSELF  THE  MARTYR  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY  FOR 
INDUSTRIAL  LIBERTY — LETTER  FROM  A  NATIVE  OF  NEWBERRY- 
PORT,  MASS.  —  NEW  ENGLAND  FOREFATHERS  HONORABLE  AND 
HEROIC  MEN  OF  THEIR  TIME. 

DESCENDANT  of  New  England  parentage,  A.  E.  Parsons' 
ancestors  figured  conspicuously  in  the  seventeenth  century 
in  the  contests  of  religious  liberty  in  England,  and  on  the 
second  voyage  of  the  Mayflower  landed  on  the  stern  and  rock-bound 
coast  of  New  England,  having  found  what  they  sought  here — free- 
dom to  "  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  own  con- 
science." 

In  the  eighteenth  century  they  were  conspicuous  in  the  struggle 
for  political  liberty.  The  Eev.  Jonathan  Parsons,*  of  Newberry- 
port,  Mass.,  the  Whitfield  of  the  time,  preached  a  war  sermon 
against  British  tyranny  from  his  pulpit,  and  raised  a  company  in 
the  aisles  of  his  church,  which  marched  to  the  trenches  of  Bunker 
Hill ;  there  a  grand-uncle  of  Albert  lost  an  arm  in  the  first  battle  of 
the  Eevolution.  Maj.-Gen.  Samuel  Parsons,  after  whom  Albert's 


*    This  is  the  "Uncle  Jonathan"  whom  America  makes  its  patron  saint. 


2  A.    B.    PARSONS 

father  was  named,  served  in  the  New  England  division  of  the  Eevo- 
lutionary  army. 

On  his  maternal  side,  his  great-grandfather  Tompkins  was  a 
trooper  in  Washington's  body  guard — served  under  him  at  Trenton, 
.Brandywine,  and  Monmouth,  shared  the  winter  horrors  at  Valley 
Forge,  and  assisted  in  the  repulse  of  the  Hessians  from  the  New 
Jersey  towns. 

His  ancestors  having  proved  their  devotion  to  religious  and 
political  freedom  in  the  two  preceding  centuries,  Albert  K.  Par- 
sons may  be  characterized  as  a  devotee  to  the  cause  of  industrial 
freedom  in  the  nineteenth  century. 

— Written  by  Gen.  W.  H.  Parsons;  his  brother. 


ANCESTORS. 


LETTEE  FROM   A  NATIVE   OF  NEWBEEKYPOKT,   MASS. 

10  POLAND  STREET,  W.  LONDON,  October  8,  1887. 

BELLOW-CRA  FTSMAN. 
*  *  *  We  had  a  packed  meeting  at  the  Club  in  Tottenham 
street  last  evening — not  packed  with  police  spies  and  dis- 
turbers, as  attempted,  but  with  your  devoted  friends  and  admirers 
from  every  country  of  the  so-called  civilized  world ;  that  is,  from 
that  portion  of  our  insignificant  little  globe  where  Adam  Smith  is 
Brahma,  Vishnu,  Mahomet,  Christ,  and  King.  On  last  evening  we 
had  the  honor  of  lining  Cleveland  street  near  at  hand  from  end  to 
end  with  police  and  constables,  while  as  many  as  could  conveniently 
stand  about  the  place  were  assembled  at  the  Club  door.  This  is 
all  excellent  advertisement  for  the  meeting  on  Friday  next  at  Fins- 
bury  Chapel.  Mr.  Moncure  Conway's  favorite  forum  is  just  a  few 
yards  inside  the  boundary  of  the  city,  so  we  have  the  myrmidons 
of  the  Lord  Mayor  to  deal  with.  They  treat  us  more  gingerly,  I  as- 
sure you,  than  the  metropolitan  force,  not  wishing  any  bobbery  in 
such  perilous  proximity  to  the  Old  Lady  of  Threadneedle  Street 
and  the  sacred  seclusion  of  Chapel  Court.  As  I  have  not  the  least 
doubt  that  your  treatment  all  along  has  depended  on  direct  orders 
from  the  latter  almighty  stronghold,  I  have  high  hopes  of  the  effect 
of  next  Friday's  meeting.  I  have  never  from  the  first  believed  that 
at  the  last  moment  they  will  dare  murder  you. 

Seymour  has  given  me  a  copy  of  a  paper  containing  your 
brother's  statement.  In  this  I  was  peculiarly  interested,  with  good 
reason.  You  can  understand  this  when  I  tell  you  that  I  am  a 
New  Englander,  from  the  old  town  of  Newberryport,  where  we  are 
pretty  stiff -necked  hypercritical ;  but  we  have  some  names  we  hold 


4  A.    R.   PARSONS 

in  reverence.  Although  Hale,  King,  Lowell,  Longfellow,  Lund, 
Perkins,  Sewall,  Webster,  Wheelright,  Whittier  are  but  a  few  of 
the  families  made  illustrious  by  our  noble  sons — although  more 
than  half  of  the  great  Yankee  race,  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
has  our  immediate  blood  in  its  veins — although  our  town  is  the 
parent  Puritan  settlement  of  northern  Massachusetts  and  the 
three  northern  New  England  states — I  can  safely  say  that  all  our 
revered  names  pale  beside  that  which  you  yourself  bear.  We  can 
never  forget  that  in  the  glorious  old  church  still  standing,  in  the 
shadow  of  which  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  born,  in  which  Cable 
Gushing  made  his  spiritual  home,  beneath  the  pulpit  of  which  still 
lies  as  in  life,  his  countenance  embalmed  in  tranquil  majesty,  the 
greatest  preacher  in  the  tide  of  time — it  was  in  this  church  that 
old  Jonathan  Parsons,  its  pastor,  preacher  only  second  to  Whit- 
field  himself  in  fiery  eloquence  and  far  beyond  him  in  every  other 
attainment,  where  old  liberty-loving  Jonathan  delivered  that  soul- 
stirring  harangue  against  British  tyranny,  so  often  told  in  song 
and  story,  which  caused  electrified  parishioners  to  spring  from  their 
seats,  and  then  and  there  in  the  broad  aisles  to  muster  a  company 
which  shed  some  of  its  best  blood  on  the  hill-tops  of  Charleston 
and  beneath  the  snow-clad  citadels  of  Canada.  More  than  this,  no 
true-born  son  of  Newberryport  ever  forgets  that  the  greatest,  most 
learned,  the  most  upright  and  fearless  judge  whom  history  notes 
was  our  townsman ;  to  his  shrine  came  the  young  legal  aspirants, 
who  afterward  molded  the  American  Union,  and  all  that  is  best 
and  most  lasting  in  its  laws  and  precedents.  Among  such  disciples 
at  the  inexhaustible  fount  of  Theophilus  Parsons  was  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States. 

Ah,  my  dear  friend  !  Your  life  is  under  the  obligation  of  sus- 
taining the  unsmirched  record  of  a  noble  name.  The  famous 
men  who  have  borne  it,  whether  preachers,  teachers,  jurists,  states- 
men, or  soldiers,  have,  according  to  their  age  and  knowledge,  been 
ever  on  the  side  of  truth  and  justice.  I  make  no  doubt  you  will  do 
nothing  to  detract  from  this  record.  Though  I  cannot  flatter,  I  will 
have  the  honest  justice  to  say  now  to  you,  perhaps  on  the  brink  of 
death,  that  should  the  infamous  crime  of  your  assassination  be 
accomplished,  I  will  bear  testimony  to  our  fellowmen  that  you  were 
not  the  least  of  those  who  have  borne  your  name. 

We  are  all  the  creatures  of  circumstances.     No  man  can  make 


ANCESTORS.  5 

himself  a  hero ;  events  may  make  him  one,  provided  he  is  made  of 
the  staff  to  bear  the  strain.  Events  have  placed  you  on  the  apex 
of  eternal  fame ;  so  far  you  have  never  faltered  from  the  trying 
test.  I  know  you  will  continue  to  honor  us  who  have  had  the  happy 
fortune  to  honor  you. 

Whether  you  live  or  die,  be  assured  of  the  highest  esteem  of 
Yours  fraternally, 

LATHBOP  WITHINGTON. 


A.    B.    PARSONS' 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  STOEY  OF  HIS  LIFE. 

PABSONS'  ANCESTORS  IN  AMERICA — EARLY  LIFE  IN  TEXAS — IN  THE 
SOUTHERN  ARMY — "THE  SPECTATOR"  —  HE  FALLS  IN  LOVE  — 
LEAVES  TEXAS  AND  SETTLES  IN  CHICAGO — BECOMES  INTERESTED 
IN  THE  LABOR  MOVEMENT — THE  GREAT  STRIKE  OF  1877  —  DIS- 
CHARGED, BLACKLISTED,  AND  THREATENED  —  FORCIBLY  EJECTED 
FROM  THE  "  TRIBUNE  "  COMPOSING  BOOM — JOINS  THE  KNIGHTS  OF 
LABOB — THE  TEADES  ASSEMBLY — "THE  SOCIALIST" — THE  "WORK- 
INGMEN'S  MILITARY  ORGANIZATIONS — THE  DISARMAMENT — WORK- 
INGMEN  ABJUBE  POLITICAL  METHODS  TO  BIGHT  ECONOMIC  WRONGS 
— THE  PITTSBUBGH  MANIFESTO — "THE  ALAEM" — THE  INTERNA- 
TIONAL SUPPORTS  THE  EIGHT-HOUR  MOVEMENT — THE  UNEQUAL 
STRUGGLE  OF  PERSONS  vs.  PROPERTY. 

FLBEBT  B.  PABSONS  was  born  in  the  city  of  Montgomery, 
Ala.,  June  24,  1848.  My  father,  Samuel  Parsons,  was  from 
the  State  of  Maine,  and  he  married  into  the  Tompkins- 
Broadwell  family,  of  New  Jersey,  and  settled  in  Alabama  at  an 
early  day,  where  he  afterward  established  a  shoe  and  leather  fac- 
tory in  the  city  of  Montgomery.  My  father  was  noted  as  a  public- 
spirited,  philanthropic  man.  He  was  a  Universalist  in  religion  and 
held  the  highest  office  in  the  temperance  movement  of  Louisiana 
and  Alabama.  My  mother  was  a  devout  Methodist,  of  great  spirit- 
uality of  character,  and  known  far  and  near  as  an  intelligent  and 
truly  good  woman.  I  had  nine  brothers  and  sisters.  My  ancestory 
goes  back  to  the  earliest  settlers  of  this  country,  the  first  Parsons 


AUTO-BIOGRAPHY.  7 

family  landing  on  the  shores  of  Narragansett  Bay  from  England, 
in  1632.  The  Parsons  family  and  their  descendants  have  taken  an 
active  and  useful  part  in  all  the  social,  religious,  political,  and  revo- 
lutionary movements  in  America.  One  of  the  Tompkinses,  on  my 
mother's  side,  was  with  Gen.  George  Washington  at  the  battles  of 
Brandywine,  Monmouth,  and  Valley  Forge.  Maj.-Gen.  Samuel 
Parsons,  of  Massachussetts,  my  direct  ancestor,  was  an  officer  in 
the  Eevolution  of  1776,  and  Capt.  Parsons  was  wounded  at  the  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill.  There  are  over  90,000  descendants  from  the  origi- 
nal Parsons  family  in  the  United  States. 

My  mother  died  when  I  was  not  yet  2  years  old,  and  my 
father  died  when  I  was  5  years  of  age.  Shortly  after  this  my 
eldest  brother,  William  Henry  Parsons,  who  had  married  and  was 
then  living  at  Tylor,  Tex.,  became  my  guardian.  He  was  proprietor 
and  editor  of  the  Tylor  Telegraph ,-  that  was  in  1851-'52-'53.  >  Two 
years  later  our  family  moved  west  to  Johnson  county,  on  the  Texas 
frontier,  while  the  buffalo,  antelope,  and  Indian  were  in  that  region. 
Here  we  lived,  on  a  range,  for  about  three  years,  when  we  moved  to 
Hill  county  and  took  up  a  farm  in  the  valley  of  the  Brazos  river. 
My  frontier  life  had  accustomed  me  to  the  use  of  the  rifle  and  the 
pistol,  to  hunting  and  riding,  and  in  these  matters  I  was  considered 
quite  an  expert.  At  that  time  our  neighbors  did  not  live  near 
enough  to  hear  each  other's  dog  bark  or  the  cocks  crow.  It  was 
often  five  to  ten  or  fifteen  miles  to  the  next  house.  In  1859  I  went 
to  Waco,  Tex.,  where,  after  living  with  my  sister  (the  wife  of  Maj. 
Bird),  and  going  to  school,  meantime,  for  about  a  year,  I  was  in- 
dentured an  apprentice  to  the  Galveston  Daily  News  for  seven 
years  to  learn  the  printer's  trade.  Entering  upon  my  duties  as  a 
"  printer's  devil,"  I  also  became  a  paper  carrier  for  the  Daily  News, 
and  in  a  year  and  a  half  was  transformed  from  a  frontier  boy  into 
a  city  civilian.  When  the  slave-holder's  Eebellion  broke  out,  in 
1861,  though  quite  small  and  but  13  years  old,  I  joined  a  local 
volunteer  military  company  called  the  "  Lone  Star  Grays."  My 
first  military  exploit  was  on  the  passenger  steamer  Morgan,  where 
we  made  a  trip  out  into  the  gulf  of  Mexico  and  intercepted  and  as- 
sisted in  the  capture  of  United  States  Gen.  Twigg's  army,  which 
had  evacuated  the  Texas  frontier  forts  and  came  to  the  sea  coast  at 
Indianapolis  to  embark  for  Washington,  D.  C. 

My  next  military  exploit  was  a  "run-away"  trip  on  my  part, 


8  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

for  which  I  received  an  ear-pulling  from  my  guardian  when  I 
returned.  These  were  stirring  "wartimes,"  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  my  young  blood  caught  the  infection.  I  wanted  to  enlist  in 
the  Rebel  army  and  join  Gen.  Lee  in  Virginia,  but  my  guardian, 
Mr.  Eichardson,  proprietor  of  the  News,  a  man  of  60  years  and 
the  leader  of  the  Secession  movement  in  Texas,  ridiculed  the  idea, 
on  account  of  my  age  and  size,  and  ended  by  telling  me  that  "  it's 
all  bluster  anyway.  It  will  be  ended  in  the  next  sixty  days,  and  I 
will  hold  in  my  hat  all  the  blood  that's  shed  in  this  war."  This 
statement  from  one  whom  I  thought  knew  all  about  it  only  served 
to  fix  all  the  firmer  my  resolve  to  go,  and  go  at  once,  before  too  late. 
So  I  took  "  French  leave,"  and  joined  an  artillery  company  at  an 
improvised  fort  at  Sabine  Pass,  Tex.,  where  Capt.  Eichard  Parsons, 
an  elder  brother,  was  in  command  of  an  infantry  company.  Here 
I  exercised  in  infantry  drill  and  served  as  "  powder  monkey  "  for 
the  cannoneers.  My  military  enlistment  expired  in  twelve  months, 
when  I  left  Fort  Sabine  and  joined  Parsons'  Texas  cavalry  brigade, 
then  on  the  Mississippi  river.  My  brother,  Maj.-Gen.  W.  H.  Par- 
sons (who  during  the  war  was  by  his  soldiers  invested  with  the 
sobriquet  "  Wild  Bill"),  was  at  that  time  in  command  of  the  entire 
cavalry  outposts  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  river  from 
Helena  to  the  mouth  of  the  Eed  river.  His  cavalrymen  held  the 
advance  in  every  movement  of  the  trans-Mississippi  army,  from  the 
defeat  of  the  Federal  General  Curtis  on  White  river  to  the  defeat  of 
Gen.  Banks'  army  on  Eed  river,  which  closed  the  fighting  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Mississippi.  I  was  a  mere  boy  of  15  when  I  joined 
my  brother's  command  at  the  front  on  White  river,  and  was  after- 
ward a  member  of  the  renowned  Mclnoly  Scouts,  under  Gen.  Par- 
sons' order,  which  participated  in  all  the  battles  of  the  Curtis, 
Canby,  and  Banks  campaigns. 

On  my  return  home  to  Waco,  Tex.,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  I 
traded  a  good  mule,  all  the  property  I  possessed,  for  forty  acres  of 
corn  in  the  field  standing  ready  for  harvest,  to  a  refugee  who  de- 
sired to  flee  the  country.  I  hired  and  paid!  wages  (the  first  they 
had  ever  received)  to  a  number  of  ex-slaves,  and  together  we  reaped 
the  harvest.  From  the  proceeds  of  its  sale  I  obtained  a.  sum  suffi- 
cient to  pay  for  six  months'  tuition  at  the  Waco  University,  under 
control  of  the  Eev.  Dr.  R.  B.  Burleson.  Soon  afterward  I  took  up 
the  trade  of  type-setting  and  went  to  work  in  a  printing  office  in  the 


AUTO-BIOGRAHT.  9 

town.  In  1868  I  founded  and  edited  a  weekly  newspaper  in  Waco, 
named  the  Spectator.  In  it  I  advocated,  witli  Gen.  Longstreet, 
the  acceptance,  in  good  faith,  of  the  terms  of  surrender,  and  sup- 
ported the  thirteenth, fourteenth, and  fifteenth  constitutional  amend- 
ments and  the  reconstruction  measures  securing  the  political  rights 
of  the  colored  people.  (1  was  strongly  influenced  in  taking  this  step 
out  of  respect  and  love  for  the  memory  of  dear  old  "Aunt  Easter," 
then  dead,  and  formerly  a  slave  and  house-servant  of  my  brother's 
family,  she  having  been  my  constant  associate  and  practically 
raised  me,  with  great  kindness  and  a  mother's  love.)  I  became  a 
Eepublican,  and,  of  course,  had  to  go  into  politics.  I  incurred  there- 
by the  hate  and  contumely  of  many  of  my  former  army  comrades, 
neighbors,  and  the  Ku  Klux  Klan.  My  political  career  was  full  of 
excitement  and  danger.  I  took  the  stump  to  vindicate  my  convic- 
tions. The  lately  enfranchised  slaves  over  a  large  section  of  coun- 
try came  to  know  and  idolize  me  as  their  friend  and  defender,  while 
on  the  other  hand  I  was  regarded  as  a  political  heretic  and  traitor 
by  many  of  my  former  associates.  The  Spectator  could  not  long 
survive  such  an  atmosphere.  In  1869  I  was  appointed  traveling 
correspondent  and  agent  for  the  Houston  Daily  Telegraph,  and 
started  out  on  horseback  (our  principal  mode  of  travel  at  that  time) 
for  a  long  tour  through  northwestern  Texas.  It  was  during  this 
trip  through  Johnson  county  that  I  first  met  the  charming  young 
Spanish-Indian  maiden  who,  three  years  later,  became  my  wife. 
She  lived  in  a  most  beautiful  region  of  country,  on  her  uncle's 
ranch  near  Buffalo  Creek.  I  lingered  in  this  neighborhood  as 
long  as  I  could,  and  then  pursued  my  journey  with  fair  suc- 
cess. In  1870.  at  21  years  of  age,  I  was  appointed  Assistant 
Assessor  of  United  States  Internal  Eevenue,  under  Gen.  Grant's 
administration.  About  a  year  later  I  was  elected  one  of  the 
Secretaries  of  the  Texas  State  Senate,  and  was  soon  after  ap- 
pointed Chief  Deputy  Collector  of  United  States  Internal  Ee- 
venue at  Austin,  Tex.,  which  position  I  held,  accounting  satis- 
factorily for  large  sums  of  money,  until  1873,  when  I  resigned  the 
position.  In  August,  1873,  I  accompanied  an  editorial  excursion, 
as  the  representative  of  the  Texas  Agriculturist,  at  Austin,Tex.,  and 
in  company  with  a  large  delegation  of  Texas  editors  made  an  ex- 
tended tour  through  Texas,  Indian  Nation,  Missouri,  Iowa,  Illinois, 
Ohio,  and  Pennsylvania,  as  guests  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas  &  Texas 


10  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

railway.  I  decided  to  settle  in  Chicago.  I  bad  married  in  Austin, 
Tex.,  in  the  fall  of  1871,  and  my  wife  joining  me  at  Philadelphia 
we  came  to  Chicago  together,  where  we  have  lived  till  the  present 
time.  I  at  once  became  a  member  of  Typographical  Union  No.  16, 
and  "  subbed  "  for  a  time  on  the  Inter-Ocean,  when  I  went  to  work 
under  "  permit "  on  the  Times.  Here  I  worked  over  four  years, 
holding  a  situation  at  "the  case."  In  1874  I  became  interested  in 
the  "labor  question,"  growing  out  of  the  effort  made  by  Chicago 
working  people  at  that  time  to  compel  the  "  Belief  and  Aid  Society" 
to  render  to  the  suffering  poor  of  the  city  an  account  of  the  vast 
sums  of  money  (several  millions  of  dollars)  held  by  that  society  and 
contributed  by  the  whole  world  to  relieve  the  distress  occasioned 
by  the  great  Chicago  fire  of  1871.  It  was  claimed  by  the  working 
people  that  the  money  was  being  used  for  purposes  foreign  to  the 
intention  of  its  donors;  that  rings  of  speculators  were  corruptly 
using  the  money,  while  the  distressed  and  impoverished  people  for 
whom  it  was  contributed  were  denied  its  use.  This  raised  a  great 
sensation  and  scandal  among  all  the  city  newspapers,  which  de- 
fended the  "Belief  and  Aid  Society,"  and  denounced  the  dissatis- 
fied workingmen  as  "Communists,  robbers,  loafers,"  etc.  I  began 
to  examine  into  this  subject,  and  I  found  that  the  complaints  of 
the  working  people  against  the  society  were  just  and  proper.  I  also 
discovered  a  great  similarity  between  the  abuse  heaped  upon  these 
poor  people  by  the  organs  of  the  rich  and  the  actions  of  the  late 
southern  slave-holders  in  Texas  toward  the  newly  enfranchised 
slaves,  whom  they  accused  of  wanting  to  make  their  former  masters 
"  divide  "  by  giving  them  "  forty  acres  and  a  mule,"  and  it  satisfied 
me  there  was  a  great  fundamental  wrong  at  work  in  society  and  in 
existing  social  and  industrial  arrangements. 

From  this  time  dated  my  interest  and  activity  in  the  labor 
movement.  The  desire  to  know  more  about  this  subject  led  me  in 
contact  with  Socialists  and  their  writings,  they  being  the  only  peo- 
ple who  at  that  time  had  made  any  protest  against  or  offered  any 
remedy  for  the  enforced  poverty  of  the  wealth-producers  and  its 
collateral  evils  of  ignorance,  intemperance,  crime,  and  misery. 
There  were  very  few  Socialists  or  "  Communists,"  as  the  daily  papers 
were  fond  of  calling  them,  in  Chicago  at  that  time.  The  result 
was,  the  more  I  investigated  and  studied  the  relations  of  poverty  to 
wealth,  its  causes  and  cure,  the  more  interested  I  became  in  the 


AUTO-BIOGRAPHY.  11 

subject.  In  1876  a  workingmen's  congress  of  organized  labor  met 
in  Pittsburgh,  Pa.  I  watched  its  proceedings.  A  split  occurred 
between  the  conservatives  and  radicals,  the  latter  of  whom  with- 
drew and  organized  the  "  Workingmen's  Party  of  the  United  States." 
The  year  previous  I  had  become  a  member  of  the  "  Social-Demo- 
cratic Party  of  America."  This  latter  was  now  merged  into  the 
former.  The  organization  was  at  once  pounced  upon  by  the  monop- 
olist class,  who,  through  the  capitalist  press  everywhere,  denounced 
us  as  "  Socialists,  Communists,  robbers,  loafers,"  etc. 

This  was  very  surprising  to  me,  and  also  had  an  exasperating 
effect  upon  me,  and  a  powerful  impulse  possessed  me  to  place  my- 
self right  before  the  people  by  denning  and  explaining  the  objects 
and  principles  of  the  Workingmen's  party,  which  I  was  thoroughly 
convinced  were  founded  both  in  justice  and  on  necessity.  I  there- 
fore entered  heartily  into  the  work  of  enlightening  my  fellow-men : 
first,  the  ignorant  and  blinded  wage-workers  who  misunderstood 
us,  and  secondly,  the  educated  labor  exploiters  who  misrepresented 
us.  I  soon  unconsciously  became  a  "labor  agitator,"  and  this 
brought  down  upon  me  a  large  amount  of  capitalist  odium.  But 
this  capitalist  abuse  and  slander  only  served  to  renew  my  zeal  all 
the  more  in  the  great  work  of  social  redemption.  In  1877  the  great 
railway  strike  occurred ;  it  was  July  21,  1877,  and  it  is  said  30,000 
workingmen  assembled  on  Market  street,  near  Madison,  in  mass- 
meeting.  I  was  called  upon  to  address  them.  In  doing  so,  I  advo- 
cated the  programme  of  the  Workingmen's  party,  which  was  the 
exercise  of  the  sovereign  ballot  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  State 
control  of  all  means  of  production,  transportation,  communication, 
and  exchange,  thus  taking  these  instruments  of  labor  and  wealth 
out  of  the  hands  or  control  of  private  individuals,  corporations, 
monopolists,  and  syndicates.  To  do  this,  I  argued  that  the  wage- 
workers  would  first  have  to  join  the  Workingmen's  party.  There 
was  great  enthusiasm,  but  no  disorder  during  ^he  meeting.  The 
next  day  I  went  to  the  Times  office  to  go  to  work  as  usual,  when  I 
found  my  name  stricken  from  the  roll  of  employes.  I  was  dis- 
charged and  blacklisted  by  this  paper  for  addressing  the  meeting 
that  night.  The  printers  in  the  office  admired  secretly  what  they 
termed  "my  pluck,"  but  they  were  afraid  to  have  much  to  say  to 
me.  About  noon  of  that  day,  as  I  was  at  the  office  of  the  German 
labor  paper,  94  Market  street  (organ  of  the  Workingmen's  party, 


12  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  printed  tri-weekly),  two  men  came  in  and 
accosting  me  said  Mayor  Heath  wanted  to  speak  with  me.  Suppos- 
ing the  gentleman  was  down-stairs,  I  accompanied  them,  when  they 
told  me  he  was  at  the  Mayor's  office.  I  expressed  my  surprise, 
and  wondered  what  he  wanted  with  me.  There  was  great  news- 
paper excitement  in  the  city,  and  the  papers  were  calling  the  strik- 
ers all  sorts  of  hard  names ;  but,  while  many  thousands  were  on  the 
strike,  there  had  been  no  disorder.  As  we  walked  hurriedly  on,  one 
on  each  side  of  me,  the  wind  blew  strong,  and  their  coat-tails  flying 
aside,  I  noticed  that  my  companions  were  armed.  Beaching  the 
City  Hall  building,  I  was  ushered  into  the  Chief  of  Police's  (Hickey) 
presence  in  a  room  filled  with  police  officers.  I  knew  none  of 
them,  but  I  seemed  to  be  known  by  them  all.  They  scowled  at  me 
and  conducted  me  to  what  they  called  the  Mayor's  roo»  Here  I 
waited  a  short  while,  when  the  door  opened  and  about  thirty  per- 
sons, mostly  in  citizen's  dress,  came  in.  The  Chief  of  Police  took  a 
seat  opposite  to  and  near  me.  I  was  very  hoarse  from  the  out-door 
speaking  of  the  previous  night,  had  caught  cold,  had  had  but  little 
sleep  or  rest,  and  had  been  discharged  from  employment.  The  Chief 
began  to  catechise  m%  in  a  brow-beating,  officious,  and  insulting 
manner.  He  wanted  to  know  who  1  was,  where  born,  raised,  if 
married  and  a  family,  etc.  I  quietly  answered  all  his  questions. 
He  then  lectured  me  on  the  great  trouble  I  had  brought  upon  the 
city  of  Chicago,  and  wound  up  by  asking  me  if  I  didn't  "  know  bet- 
ter than  to  come  up  here  from  Texas  and  incite  the  working  people 
to  insurrection,"  etc.  I  told  him  that  I  had  done  nothing  of  the 
sort,  or  at  least  I  had  not  intended  to  do  so ;  that  I  was  simply  a 
speaker  at  the  meeting ;  that  was  all.  I  told  him  that  the  strike 
arose  from  causes  over  which  I,  as  an  individual,  had  no  control ; 
that  I  had  merely  addressed  the  mass-meeting,  advising  to  not 
strike,  but  go  to  the  polls,  elect  good  men  to  make  good  laws,  and 
thus  bring  about  good  times.  Those  present  in  the  room  were 
much  excited,  and  when  I  was  through  explaining  some  spoke  up 
and  said  "  Hang  him,"  "  Lynch  him,"  "  Lock  him  up,"  etc. ;  to  my 
great  surprise  holding  me  responsible  for  the  strikes  in  the  city. 
Others  said  it  would  never  do  to  hang  or  lock  me  up ;  that  the 
workingmen  were  excited  and  that  act  might  cause  them  to  do  vio- 
lence. It  was  agreed  to  let  me  go.  I  had  been  there  about  two 
hours.  The  Chief  of  Police  as  I  rose  to  depart  took  me  by  the  arm, 


AUTO-BIOGEAPHY.  13 

accompanied  me  to  the  door,  where  we  stopped.  He  said :  "Par- 
sons, your  life  is  in  danger.  I  advise  you  to  leave  the  city  at  once. 
Beware.  Everything  you  say  or  do  is  made  known  to  me.  I  have 
men  on  your  track  who  shadow  you.  Do  you  know  you  are  liable 
to  be  assassinated  any  moment  on  the  street  ?"  I  ventured  to  ask 
him  who  by,  and  what  for  ?  He  answered :  "Why,  those  Board  of 
Trade  men  would  as  leave  hang  you  to  a  lamp-post  as  not."  This 
surprised  me,  and  I  answered :  "  If  I  was  alone  they  might,  but  not 
otherwise."  He  turned  the  spring  latch,  shoved  me  through  the 
door  into  the  hall,  saying  in  a  hoarse  tone  of  voice,  "Take  warning," 
and  slammed  the  door  to.  I  was  never  in  the  old  rookery  before. 
It  was  a  labyrinth  of  halls  and  doors.  I  saw  no  one  about.  All 
was  still.  The  sudden  change  from  the  tumultuous  inmates  of  the 
room  to  the  dark  and  silent  hall  affected  me.  I  didn't  know  where 
to  go  or  what  to  do.  I  felt  alone,  absolutely  without  a  friend  in  the 
wide  world. 

This  was  my  first  experience  with  the  "powers  that  be,"  and  I 
became  conscious  that  they  were  powerful  to  give  or  take  one's  life. 
I  was  sad,  not  excited.  The  afternoon  papers  announced  in  great 
head  lines  that  Parsons,  the  leader  of  the  strikers,  was  arrested. 
This  was  surprising  and  annoying  to  me,  for  I  had  made  no  such 
attempt  and  was  not  under  arrest.  But  the  papers  said  so.  That 
night  I  called  at  the  composing-room  of  the  Tribune  office,  on  the 
fifth  floor,  partly  to  get  a  night's  work  and  partly  to  be  near  the  men 
of  my  own  craft,  whom  I  instinctively  felt  sympathized  with  me. 
The  men  went  to  work  at  7  p.  m.  It  was  near  8  o'clock,  as  I  was 
talking  about  the  great  strike,  and  wondering  what  it  would  all 
come  to,  with  Mr.  Manion,  Chairman  of  the  Executive  Board  of  our 
union,  when  from  behind  some  one  took  hold  of  my  arms  and, 
jerking  me  around  to  face  them,  asked  me  if  my  name  was  Parsons. 
One  man  on  ea:?h  side  of  me  took  hold  of  one  arm,  another  man  put 
his  hand  against  my  back,  and  began  dragging  and  shoving  me  to- 
ward the  door.  They  were  strangers.  I  expostulated.  I  wanted 
to  know  what  was  the  matter.  I  said  to  them :  "  I  came  in  here  as 
a  gentleman,  and  I  don't  want  to  be  dragged  out  like  a  dog."  They 
cursed  me  between  their  teeth,  and,  opening  the  door,  began  to  lead 
me  down-stairs.  As  we  started  down  one  of  them  put  a  pistol  to 
my  head  and  said :  'Tve  a  mind  to  blow  your  brains  out."  Another 
said:  "Shut  up  or  we'll  dash  you,  out  the  window  upon  the  pave- 


14  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

meets  below."  Beaching  the  bottom  of  the  five  flights  of  stairs  they 
paused  and  said :  "  Now  go.  If  you  ever  put  your  face  in  this  build- 
ing again  you'll  be  arrested  and  locked  up."  A  few  steps  in  the 
hallway  and  I  opened  the  door  and  stepped  out  upon  the  sidewalk. 
(I  learned  afterward  from  the  Tribune  printers  that  there  was  great 
excitement  in  the  composing-room,  the  men  threatening  to  strike 
then  and  there  on  account  of  the  way  I  had  been  treated ;  when  Joe 
Medill,  the  proprietor,  came  up  into  the  composing-room  and  made 
an  excitable  talk  to  the  men,  explaining  that  he  knew  nothing  about 
it  and  that  my  treatment  was  done  without  his  knowledge  or  con- 
sent, rebuking  those  who  had  acted  in  the  way  they  had  done.  It 
was  the  opinion  of  the  men,  however,  that  this  was  only  a  subter- 
fuge to  allay  the  threatened  trouble  which  my  treatment  had  ex- 
cited.) The  streets  were  almost  deserted  at  that  early  hour,  and 
there  was  a  hushed  and  expectant  feeling  pervading  everything.  I 
felt  that  I  was  likely  to  fall  a  pitiless,  unknown  sacrifice  at  any 
moment.  I  strolled  down  Dearborn  street  to  Lake,  west  on  Lake 
to  Fifth  avenue.  It  was  a  calm,  pleasant  summer  night.  Lying 
stretched  upon  the  curb,  and  loitering  in  and  about  the  closed 
doors  of  the  mammoth  buildings  on  these  streets,  were  armed  men. 
Some  held  their  muskets  in  hand,  but  most  of  them  were  rested 
against  the  buildings.  In  going  by  way  of  an  unfrequented  street 
I  found  that  I  had  got  among  those  whom  I  sought  to  evade — they 
were  the  First  regiment,  Illinois  National  Guards.  They  seemed 
to  be  waiting  for  orders ;  for  had  not  the  newspapers  declared  that 
the  strikers  were  becoming  violent,. and  "  the  Commune  was  about 
to  rise !"  and  that  I  was  their  leader !  No  one  spoke  to  or  molested 
me.  I  was  unknown.  The  next  day  and  the  next  the  strikers 
gathered  in  thousands  in  different  parts  of  the  city  without  leaders 
or  any  organized  purpose.  They  were  in  each  instance  clubbed 
and  fired  upon  and  dispersed  by  the  police  and  militia.  That 
night  a  peaceable  meeting  of  3,000  workingmen  was  dispersed  on 
Market  street,  near  Madison.  I  witnessed  it.  Over  100  policemen 
charged  upon  this  peaceable  mass-meeting,  firing  their  pistols  and 
clubbing  right  and  left.  The  printers,  the  iron-molders,  and  other 
trades  unions  which  had  held  regular  monthly  or  weekly  meetings 
of  their  unions  for  years  past,  when  they  came  to  their  hall-doors 
now  for  that  purpose,  found  policemen  standing  there,  the  doors 
barred,  and  the  members  told  that  all  meetings  had  been  pro- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  15 

hibited  by  the  Chief  of  Police.  All  mass-meetings,  union  meetings 
of  any  character  were  broken  up  by  the  police,  and  at  one  place 
(Twelfth  Street  Turner  hall),  where  the  Furniture- Workers'  Union 
had  met  to  confer  with  their  employers  about  the  eight-hour  system 
and  wages,  the  police  broke  down  the  doors,  forcibly  entered,  and 
clubbed  and  fired  upon  the  men  as  they  struggled  pell-mell  to. 
escape  from  the  building,  killing  one  workman  and  wounding  many 
others. 

The  following  day  the"  First  regiment,  Illinois  National  Guards, 
fired  upon  a  crowd  of  sight-seers,  consisting  of  several  thousand 
men,  women,  and  children,  killing  several  persons,  none  of  whom 
were  ever  on  a  strike,  at  Sixteenth  street  viaduct. 

For  about  two  years  after  the  railroad  strike  and  my  discharge 
from  the  Times  office  I  was  blacklisted  and  unable  to  find  employ- 
ment in  the  city,  and  my  family  suffered  for  the  necessaries  of  life. 

The  events  of  1877  gave  great  impulse  and  activity  to  the  labor 
movement  all  over  the  United  States,  and,  in  fact,  the  whole  world. 
The  unions  rapidly  increased  both  in  number  and  membership.  So, 
too,  with  the  Knights  of  Labor.  In  visiting  Indianapolis,  Ind.,  to 
address  a  mass-meeting  of  workingmen  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1876, 
I  met  the  State  Organizer,  Calvin  A.  Light,  and  was  initiated  by 
him  as  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  and  I  have  been  a  mem- 
ber of  that  order  ever  since.  That  organization  had  no  foothold,  was 
in  fact  unknown,  in  Illinois,  at  that  time.  What  a  change  !  To-day  the 
Knights  of  Labor  has  nearly  a  million  members,  and  numbers  tens 
of  thousands  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  The  political  labor  movement 
boomed  also.  The  following  spring  of  1877  the  Workingmen's  Party 
of  the  United  States  nominated  a  full  county  ticket  in  Chicago.  It 
elected  three  members  of  the  Legislature  and  one  Senator.  I  re- 
ceived as  candidate  for  County  Clerk  7,963  votes,  running  over  400 
ahead  of  the  ticket.  About  that  time  I  became  a  member  of  local 
assembly  400  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  the  first  Knights  of  Labor 
assembly  organized  in  Chicago,  and,  I  believe,  in  the  State  of  Illi- 
nois. I  also  served  as  a  delegate  to  district  assembly  24  for  two 
terms,  and  was,  I  think,  made  its  Master  Workman  for  one  term. 

I  have  been  nominated  by  the  workingmen  in  Chicago  three 
times  for  Aldermen,  twice  for  County  Clerk,  and  once  for  Congress. 
The  Labor  party  was  kept  up  for  four  years,  polling  at  each  election 
from  6,000  to  12,000  votes.  I  was  in  1878  a  delegate  to  the  na- 


16  A.    E.    PAESONS' 

tional  convention  of  the  "Workingmen's  Party  of  the  United  States, 
held  at  Newark,  N.  J.  At  this  labor  congress  the  name  of  the 
party  was  changed  to  "Socialistic  Labor  party."  In  1878,  at  my 
instance  and  largely  through  my  efforts,  the  present  Trades  Assem- 
bly of  Chicago  and  vicinity  was  organized.  I  was  its  first  President 
and  was  re-elected  to  that  position  three  times.  I  remained  a  del- 
egate to  the  Trades  Assembly  from  Typographical  Union  No.  16  for 
several  years.  I  was  a  strenuous  advocate  of  the  eight-hour  system 
among  trades  unions.  In  1879  I  was  a  delegate  to  the  national 
convention  held  in  Allegheny  City,  Pa.,  of  the  Socialistic  Labor 
party.and  was  there  nominated  as  the  Labor  candidate  for  President 
of  the  United  States.  I  declined  the  honor,  not  being  of  the  con- 
stitutional age— 35  years.  (This  was  the  first  nomination  of  a  work- 
ingman  by  workingmen  for  that  office  in  the  United  States.) 

During  these  years  of  political  action  every  endeavor  was  made 
to  corrupt,  to  intimidate,  and  mislead  the  Labor  party.  But  it  re- 
mained pure  and  undefiled ;  it  refused  to  be  cowed,  bought,  or  mis- 
led. Beset  on  the  one  side  by  the  insinuating  politician  and  on  the 
other  by  the  almighty  money-bags,  what  between  the  two  the 
Labor  party — the  honest,  poor  party — had  a  hard  road  to  travel. 
And,  worst  of  all,  the  workingmen  refused  to  rally  en  masse  to 
their  own  party,  but  doggedly,  the  most  of  them,  hugged  their  idols 
of  Democracy  or  Eepublicanism,  and  fired  their  ballots  against  each 
other  on  election  days.  It  was  discouraging.  But  the  Labor  party 
moved  forward  undaunted,  and  each  election  came  up  smiling  at 
defeat.  In  1876  the  Socialist,  an  English  weekly  paper,  was  pub- 
lished by  the  party,  and  I  was  elected  its  assistant  editor.  About 
this  time  the  Socialist  organization  held  some  monster  meetings. 
The  Exposition  building  on  one  occasion  contained  over  40,000 
attendants,  and  many  could  not  get  inside.  Ogden's  grove  on  one 
occasion  held  30,000  persons.  During  these  years  the  labor  move- 
ment was  undergoing  its  formative  period,  as  it  is  even  now.  The 
un-American  utterances  of  the  capitalist  press — the  representatives 
of  monopoly — excited  the  gravest  apprehension  among  thoughtful 
working  people.  These  representatives  of  the  moneyed  aristocracy 
advised  the  use  of  police  clubs,  and  militia  bayonets,  and  gatling 
guns  to  suppress  strikers  and  put  down  discontended  laborers 
struggling  for  better  pay — shorter  work-hours.  The  millionaires 
and  their  representatives  on  the  pulpit  and  rostum  avowed  their 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  17 

intention  to  use  force  to  quell  their  dissatisfied  laborers.  The  ex- 
ecution of  these  threats ;  the  breaking  up  of  meetings,  arrest  and 
imprisonment  of  labor  "leaders;"  the  use  of  club,  pistol,  and 
bayonet  upon  strikers ;  even  to  the  advice  to  throw  hand-grenades 
(dynamite)  among  them — these  acts  of  violence  and  brutality  led 
many  workingmen  to  consider  the  necessity  for  self-defense  of 
their  person  and  their  rights.  Accordingly,  workingmen's  military 
organizations  sprang  up  all  over  the  country.  So  formidable  did 
this  plan  of  organization  promise  to  become  that  the  capitalistic 
Legislature  of  Illinois  in  1878,  acting  under  orders  from  millionaire 
manufacturers  and  railway  corporations,  passed  a  law  disarming 
the  wage-workers.  This  law  the  workingmen  at  once  tested  in  the 
Courts  of  Illinois,  and  afterward  carried  it  to  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  where  it  was  decided  by  the  highest  tribunal 
that  the  State  Legislatures  of  the  United  States  had  a  constitutional 
right  to  disarm  workingmen.  Dissensions  began  to  rise  in  the 
Socialist  organization  over  the  question  of  methods.  In  the  fall 
and  spring  elections  of  1878-'79-'80  the  politicians  began  to  prac- 
tice ballot-box  stuffing  and  other  outrages  upon  the  Workingmen's 
party.  It  was  then  I  began  to  realize  the  hopeless  task  of  political 
reformation.  Many  workingmen  began  to  lose  faith  in  the  potency 
of  the  ballot  or  the  protection  of  the  law  for  the  poor.  Some  of 
them  said  that  "political  liberty  without  economic  (industrial) 
freedom  was  an  empty  phrase."  Others  claimed  that  poverty  had 
no  votes  as  against  wealth ;  because  if  a  man's  bread  was  con- 
trolled by  another,  that  other  could  and,  when  necessary,  would 
control  his  vote  also.  A  consideration  and  discussion  of  these  sub- 
jects gradually  brought  a  change  of  sentiment  in  the  minds  of 
many ;  the  conviction  began  to  spread  that  the  State,  the  Govern- 
ment and  its  laws,  was  merely  the  agent  of  the  owners  of  capital  to 
reconcile,  adjust,  and  protect  their — the  capitalists' — conflicting  in- 
terests ;  that  the  chief  function  of  all  Government  was  to  main- 
tain economic  subjection  of  the  man  of  labor  to  the  monopolizer  of 
the  means  of  labor — of  life — to  capital.  These  ideas  began  to  de- 
velop in  the  minds  of  workingmen  everywhere  (in  Europe  as  well  as 
America),  and  the  conviction  grew  that  law — statute  law — and  all 
forms  of  Government  (governors,  rulers,  dictators, whether  Emperor, 
King,  President,  or  capitalist,  were  each  and  all  of  the  despots 
and  usurpers),  was  nothing  else  than  an  organized  conspiracy  of 


18  A.  K.  PARSONS' 

the  propertied  class  to  deprive  the  working  class  of  their  natural 
rights.  The  conviction  obtained  that  money  or  wealth  controlled 
politics ;  that  money  controlled,  by  hook  or  crook,  labor  at  the  polls 
as  well  as  in  the  workshop.  The  idea  began  to  prevail  that  the  ele- 
ment of  coercion,  of  force,  which  enabled  one  person  to  dominate 
and  exploit  the  labor  of  another,  was  centered  or  concentrated  in  the 
State,  the  Government,  and  the  statute  law,  that  every  law  and 
«very  Government  in  the  last  analysis  was  force,  and  that  force  was 
despotism,  an  invasion  of  man's  natural  right  to  liberty. 

In  1880  I  withdrew  from  all  active  participation  in  the  political 
Labor  party,  having  been  convinced  that  the  number  of  hours  per 
day  that  the  wage-workers  are  compelled  to  work,  together  with  the 
low  wages  they  received,  amounted  to  their  practical  disfranchise- 
ment  as  voters.  I  saw  that  long  hours  and  low  wages  deprived 
the  wage-workers,  as  a  class,  of  the  necessary  time  and  means,  and 
consequently  left  them  but  little  inclination  to  organize  for  political 
action  to  abolish  class  legislation.  My  experience  in  the  Labor 
party  had  also  taught  me  that  bribery,  intimidation,  duplicity,  cor- 
ruption, and  bulldozing  grew  out  of  the  conditions  which  made  the 
working-people  poor  and  the  idlers  rich,  and  that  consequently  the 
tallot-box  could  not  be  made  an  index  to  record  the  popular  will 
until  the  existing  debasing,  impoverishing,  and  enslaving  industrial 
conditions  were  first  altered.  For  these  reasons  I  turned  my  activ- 
ities mainly  toward  an  effort  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  to  at  least 
a  normal  working  clay,  so  that  the  wage-workers  might  thereby 
secure  more  leisure  from  mere  drudge  work,  and  obtain  better  pay 
to  minister  to  their  higher  aspirations.  Several  trades  unions 
united  in  sending  me  throughout  the  different  States  to  lay  the 
eight-hour  question  before  the  labor  organizations  of  the  country. 
In  January,  1880,  the  "  Eight-Hour  League  of  Chicago  "  sent  me 
as  a  delegate  to  the  national  conference  of  labor  reformers,  held 
in  Washington,  D.  C.  This  convention  adopted  a  resolution  which 
I  offered,  calling  public  attention  of  the  United  States  Congress  to 
the  fact,  that,  while  the  eight-hour  law  passed  years  ago  had  never 
been  enforced  in  Government  departments,  there  was  no  trouble  at 
all  in  getting  through  Congress  all  the  capitalistic  legislation  called 
for.  By  this  national  convention  Eichard  Trevellick,  Charles  H. 
Litchman,  Dyer  D.  Lum,  John  G.  Mills,  and  myself  were  appointed 
a  committee  of  the  National  Eight-Hour  Association,  whose  duty  it 


AUTOBIOGKAPHY.  19 

was  to  remain  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  urge  upon  the  labor 
organizations  of  the  United  States  to  unite  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  eight-hour  law. 

About  this  time  there  followed  a  period  of  discussion  of  prop- 
erty rights,  of  the  rights  of  majorities  and  minorities.  The  agita- 
tion of  the  subject  led  to  the  formation  of  a  new  organization,  called 
the  International  Revolutionary  Socialists,  and  later  the  Inter- 
national Working  People's  Association.  I  was  a  delegate  in  1881 
to  the  labor  congress  which  founded  the  former,  and  afterward 
also  delegate  to  the  Pittsburgh  (Pa.)  congress  in  October,  1883, 
which  revived  the  latter  as  a  part  of  the  International  Working 
People's  Association,  which  already  ramified  Europe,  and  which 
was  originally  organized  at  the  world's  labor  congress  held  at  Lon- 
don, England,  in  1864. 

I  cannot  do  better  than  insert  here  the  manifesto  of  the  Pitts- 
burgh congress,  which  clearly  sets  forth  the  aims  and  methods  of 
the  International,  of  which  I  am  still  a  member,  and  for  which  rea- 
son myself  and  comrades  are  condemned  to  death.  It  was  adopted 
as  follows : 

TO  THE  WORKINGMEN  OF  AMERICA. 

Fellow-Workmen  :     The  Declaration  of  Independence  says: 

"  *  *  *  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usurpations,  pursuing 
invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a  design  to  reduce  them  (the  people) 
under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right,  it  is  their  duty  to  throw  off 
such  Government  and  provide  new  guards  for  their  future  security." 

This  thought  of  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  justification  for  armed  re- 
sistance by  our  forefathers,  which  gave  birth  to  our  Republic,  and  do  not 
the  necessities  of  our  present  time  compel  us  to  reassert  their  declaration? 

Fellow-workmen,  we  ask  you  to  give  us  your  attention  for  a  few  mo- 
ments. We  ask  you  to  candidly  read  the  following  manifesto  issued  in 
your  behalf ;  in  behalf  of  your  wives  and  children ;  in  behalf  of  humanity 
and  progress. 

Our  present  society  is  founded  on  the  exploitation  of  the  property  less 
by  the  propertied.  The  exploitation  is  such  that  the  propertied  (capitalist) 
buy  the  working  force,  body  and  soul,  of  the  propertyless,  for  the  price 
of  the  mere  cost  of  existence  (wages),  and  take  for  themselves  (i.  e.,  steal) 
the  amount  of  new  values  (products)  which  exceeds  the  price,  whereby 
wages  are  made  to  represent  the  necessities  instead  of  the  earnings  of 
the  wage-laborer. 

As  the  non-possessing  classes  are  forced  by  their  poverty  to  offer  for 
sale  to  the  propertied  their  working  forces,  and  as  our  present  production 


20  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

on  a  grand  scale  enforces  technical  development  with  immense  rapidity, 
so  that  by  the  application  of  an  always  decreasing  number  of  human  work- 
ing force  an  always  increasing  amount  of  products  is  created  ;  so  does 
the  supply  of  working  force  increase  constantly,  while  the  demand  there- 
fore decreases.  This  is  the  reason  why  the  workers  compete  more  and 
more  intensely  in  selling  themselves,  causing  their  wages  to  sink,  or  at 
least  on  the  average  never  raising  them  above  the  margin  necessary  for 
keeping  intact  their  working  ability. 

Whilst  by  this  process  the  propertyless  are  entirely  debarred  from 
entering  the  ranks  of  the  propertied,  even  by  the  most  strenuous  exer- 
tions, the  propertied,  by  means  of  the  ever-increasing  plundering  of  the 
working  class,  are  becoming  richer  day  by  day,  without  in  any  way  being 
themselves  productive. 

If  now,  and  then  one  of  the  propertyless  class  become  rich  it  is  not 
by  their  own  labor,  but  from  opportunities  which  they  have  to  speculate 
upon  and  absorb  the  labor  product  of  others. 

With  the  accumulation  of  individual  wealth  the  greed  and  power  of 
the  propertied  grows.  They  use  all  the  means  for  competing  among  them- 
selves for  the  robbery  of  the  people.  In  this  struggle  generally  the  less- 
propertied  (middle -class)  are  overcome,  while  the  great  capitalists,  par 
excellence,  swell  their  wealth  enormously,  concentrate  entire  branches  of 
production,  as  well  as  trade  and  inter-communication,  into  their  hands,  and 
develop  into  monopolies.  The  increase  of  products,  accompanied  by  simul- 
taneous decrease  of  the  average  income  of  the  working  mass  of  the  people, 
leads  to  so-called  "  business "  and  "  commercial "  crises,  when  the  misery 
of  the  wage-workers  is  forced  to  the  extreme. 

For  illustration  :  The  last  census  of  the  United  States  shows  that 
after  deducting  the  cost  of  raw  material,  interest,  rents,  risks,  etc.,  the 
propertied  class  have  absorbed — i.  e.,  stolen — more  than  five-eighths  of  all 
products,  leaving  scarcely  three-eighths  to  the  producers.  The  propertied 
class  being  scarcely  one-tenth  of  our  population,  and  in  spite  of  their 
luxury  and  extravagance,  are  unable  to  consume  their  enormous  "profits," 
and  the  producers  unable  to  consume  more  than  they  receive — three-eighths 
— so-called  "  overproductions  "  must  necessarily  take  place.  The  terrible 
results  of  panics  are  well  known. 

The  increasing  eradication  of  working  forces  from  the  productive  pro- 
cess annually  increases  the  percentage  of  the  propertyless  population,  which 
becomes  pauperized  and  is  driven  to  "crime,"  vagabondage,  prostitution, 
suicide,  starvation,  and  general  depravity.  This  system  is  unjust,  insane, 
and  murderous.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  to  totally  destroy  it  with  and 
by  all  means,  and  with  the  greatest  energy  on  the  part  of  every  one  who 
suffers  by  it  and  who  does  not  want  to  be  made  culpable  for  its  con- 
tinued existence  by  his  inactivity. 

Agitation  for  the  purpose  of  organization ;  organization  for  the  pur- 
pose of  rebellion.  In  these  few  words  the  ways  are  marked  which  the 
workers  must  take  if  they  want  to  be  rid  of  their  chains.  As  the  economic 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  21 

condition  is  the  same  in  all  countries  of  so-called  "  civilization;"  as  the 
Governments  of  all  Monarchies  and  Republics  work  hand  in  hand  for  the 
purpose  of  opposing  all  movements  of  the  thinking  part  of  the  workers ; 
as,  finally,  the  victory  in  the  decisive  combat  of  the  proletarians  against 
their  oppressors  can  only  be  gained  by  the  simultaneous  struggle  along 
the  whole  line  of  the  bourgeois  (capitalistic)  society — so,  therefore,  the  inter- 
national fraternity  of  people  as  expressed  in  the  International  Working 
People's  Association  presents  itself  a  self-evident  necessity. 

True  order  should  take  its  place.  This  can  only  be  achieved  when 
all  implements  of  labor,  the  soil  and  other  premises  of  production — in  short, 
capital  produced  by  labor — is  changed  into  societary  property.  Only  by 
this  presupposition  is  destroyed  every  possibility  of  the  future  spoliation 
of  man  by  man.  Only  by  common,  undivided  capital  can  all  be  enabled 
to  enjoy  in  their  fullness  the  fruits  of  the  common  toil.  Only  by  the  im- 
possibility of  accumulating  individual  (private)  capital  can  everyone  be  com- 
pelled to  work  who  makes  a  demand  to  live. 

This  order  of  things  allows  production  to  regulate  itself  according  to 
the  demand  of  the  whole  people,  so  that  nobody  need  work  more  than 
a  few  hours  a  day,  and  that  all  nevertheless  can  supply  their  needs.  Hereby 
time  and  opportunity  are  given  for  opening  to  the  people  the  way  to  the 
highest  possible  civilization ;  the  privileges  of  higher  intelligence  fall  with 
the  privileges  ot  wealth  and  birth.  To  the  achievement  of  such  a  system 
the  political  organizations  of  the  capitalistic  classes — be  they  Monarchies 
or  Republics — form  the  barriers.  These  political  structures  (States),  which 
are  completely  in  the  hands  of  the  propertied,  have  no  other  purpose  than 
the  upholding  of  the  present  disorder  of  exploitation. 

All  laws  are  directed  against  the  working  people.  In  so  far  as  the 
opposite  appears  to  be  the  case,  they  serve  on  one  hand  to  blind  the 
worker,  while  on  the  other  hand  they  are  simply  evaded.  Even  the  school 
serves  only  the  purpose  of  furnishing  the  offspring  of  the  wealthy  with 
those  qualities  necessary  to  uphold  their  class  domination.  The  children 
of  the  poor  get  scarcely  a  formal  elementary  training,  and  this,  too,  is 
mainly  directed  to  such  branches  as  tend  to  producing  prejudices,  arro- 
gance, and  servility;  in  short,  want  of  sense.  The  church  finally  seeks 
to  make  complete  idiots  out  of  the  mass  and  make  them  forego  the  para- 
dise on  earth  by  promising  a  fictitious  heaven.  The  capitalistic  press,  on 
the  other  hand,  takes  care  of  the  confusion  of  spirits  in  public  life.  All 
these  institutions,  far  from  aiding  in  the  education  of  the  masses,  have 
for  their  object  the  keeping  in  ignorance  of  the  people.  They  are  all  in 
the  pay  and  under  the  direction  of  the  capitalistic  classes.  The  workers 
can  therefore  expect  no  help  from  any  capitalistic  party  in  their  struggle 
against  the  existing  system.  They  must  achieve  their  liberation  by  their 
own  efforts.  As  in  former  times  a  privileged  class  never  surrendered  its 
tyranny,  neither  can  it  be  expected  that  the  capitalists  of  this  age  will 
give  up  their  rulership  without  being  forced  to  do  it. 

If  there  ever  could  have  been  any  question  on  this  point  it  should  long 


22  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

ago  have  been  dispelled  by  the  brutalities  which  the  bourgeois  of  all  coun- 
tries— in  America  as  well  as  in  Europe — constantly  commit,  as  often  as 
the  proletariat  anywhere  energetically  move  to  better  their  condition.  It 
becomes,  therefore,  self-evident  that  the  struggle  of  the  proletariat  with  the 
bourgeois  will  be  of  a  violent  revolutionary  character. 

We  could  show  by  scores  of  illustrations  that  all  attempts  in  the  past 
to  reform  this  monstrous  system  by  peaceable  means,  such  as  the  ballot, 
have  been  futile,  and  all  such  efforts  in  the  future  must  necessarily  be 
so,  for  the  following  reasons  : 

The  political  institutions  of  our  time  are  the  agencies  of  the  proper- 
tied class  ;  their  mission  is  the  upholding  of  the  privileges  of  their  masters; 
any  reform  in  your  own  behalf  would  curtail  these  privileges.  To  this 
they  will  not  and  cannot  consent,  for  it  would  be  suicidal  to  themselves. 

That  they  will  not  resign  their  privileges  voluntarily  we  know ;  that 
they  will  not  make  any  concessions  to  us  we*  likewise  know.  Since  we 
must  then  rely  upon  the  kindness  of  our  master  for  whatever  redress 
we  have,  and  knowing  that  from  them  no  good  may  be  expected,  there 
remains  but  one  recourse — force  !  Our  forefathers  have  not  only  told  us 
that  against  despots  force  is  justifiable,  because  it  is  the  only  means, 
but  they  themselves  have  set  the  immemorial  example. 

By  force  our  ancestors  liberated  themselves  from  political  oppression,  by 
force  their  children  will  have  to  liberate  themselves  from  economic  bondage. 
"It  is,  therefore,  your  right,  it  is  your  duty,"  says  Jefferson,  "to  arm  !  " 

What  we  would  achieve  is,   therefore,   plainly  and  simply  : 

First — Destruction  of  the  existing  class  rule  by  all  means — i.  e.,  by 
energetic,  relentless,  revolutionary,  and  international  action. 

Second — Establishment  of  a  free  society  based  upon  co-operative  or- 
ganization of  production. 

Third — Free  exchange  of  equivalent  products  by  and  between  the  pro- 
ductive organizations  without  commerce  and  prolit-mongery. 

Fourth  Organization  of  education  on  a  secular,  scientific,  and  equal 
basis  for  both  sexes. 

Fifth — Equal  rights  for  all,  without  distinction  to  sex  or  race. 

Sixth — Regulation  of  all  public  affairs  by  free  contracts  between  the 
autonomous  (independent)  Communes  and  associations,  resting  on  a  fed- 
eralistic  basis. 

Whoever  agrees  with  this  idea  let  him  grasp  our  outstretched  brother- 
hands  ! 

Proletarians  from  all  countries,   unite  ! 

Fellow-workmen,   all  we  need  for  the  achievement   of  this  great  end 

is    OKGANIZATION    AND    UNITY  ! 

The  day  has  come  for  solidarity  !  Join  our  ranks  !  Let  the  drum  beat 
defiantly  the  roll  of  battle  :  "  Workmen  of  all  countries,  unite  !  You  have 
nothing  to  lose  but  your  chains  ;  you  have  the  world  to  win  !  " 

Issued  by  the  Pittsburgh  congress  of  the  International  Working  Peoples' 
Association,  on  October  16,  1883. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  23 

In  all  these  matters  here  enumerated  I  took  an  active,  personal 
interest.  October  1, 1884,  the  International  founded  in  Chicago  the 
Alarm,  a  weekly  newspaper,  of  which  I  was  elected  to  the  position 
of  editor,  and  I  have  held  that  position  until  its  seizure  and  sup- 
pression by  the  authorities  on  the  5th  day  of  May,  1886,  following 
the  Haymarket  tragedy. 
*  #  #  *  *  **** 

The  examination  of  the  class  struggle  demonstrates  that  the 
eight-hour  movement  was  doomed  by  the  very  nature  of  things  to 
defeat.  But  the  International  gave  its  support  to  it  for  two  rea- 
sons, viz. :  First,  because  it  was  a  class  movement  against  class 
domination,  therefore  historical,  and  evolutionary,  and  necessary ; 
and  secondly,  because  we  did  not  choose  to  stand  aloof  and  be  mis- 
understood by  our  fellow- workers.  We,  therefore,  gave  to  it  all  the 
aid  and  comfort  in  our  power.  I  was  regularly  accredited  under 
the  official  seal  of  the  trade  and  labor  unions  of  the  Central  Labor 
Union,  representing  20,000  organized  workingmen  in  Chicago,  to 
assist  in  the  organization  of  trade  and  labor  unions,  and  do  all  in 
my  power  for  the  eight-hour  movement.  The  Central  Labor  Union, 
in  conjunction  with  the  International,  publishes  six  newspapers  in 
Chicago,  to- wit :  One  English  weekly,  two  German  weeklies,  one 
Bohemian  weekly,  one  Scandinavian  weekly,  and  one  German  daily 
newspaper. 

The  trade  and  labor  unions  of  the  United  States  and  Canada 
having  set  apart  the  1st  day  of  May,  1886,  to  inaugurate  the  eight- 
hour  system,  I  did  all  in  my  power  to  assist  the  movement.  I  feared 
conflict  and  trouble  would  arise  between  the  authorities  represent- 
ing the  employerb  of  labor  and  the  wage-workers,  who  only  repre- 
sented themselves.  I  knew  that  defenceless  men,  women,  and 
children  must  finally  succumb  to  the  power  of  the  discharge,  black- 
list, and  lock-out,  and  its  consequent  misery  and  hunger,  enforced 
by  the  militiaman's  bayonet  and  the  policeman's  club.  I  did  not 
advocate  the  use  of  force.  But  I  denounced  the  capitalists  for  em- 
ploying it  to  hold  the  laborers  in  subjection  to  them,  and,  declared 
that  such  treatment  would  of  necessity  drive  the  workingmen  to 
employ  the  same  means  in  self-defence. 

ALBERT  E.  PARSONS. 
COOK  COUNTY  JAIL,  CELL  29,  August,  1886. 


PART  II. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ME.  PARSONS1  WESTEKN  TRIP  CORRESPONDENCE. 

SPEECH  DELIVERED  JULY  4,  1884,  IN  OTTAWA,  KAN.,  BEFORE  AN 
AUDIENCE  OF  THREE  THOUSAND  PEOPLE — REASONS  FOR  His  IDEAS 
— SOCIAL  SCIENCE,  THE  EXPLANATION  OF  FACTS — PRODUCTION  AND 
DISTRIBUTION  THE  BASIS  OF  ALL  PROGRESS — PROCESS  OF  CRUSH- 
ING OUT  OF  THE  MIDDLE  CLASSES — BOURGEOISIE  FOLLOWED  THE 
FEUDAL  SYSTEM  AND  IN  ITS  TURN  MUST  GIVE  WAY — VALUABLE 
STATISTICS — INCREASE  OF  CRIME  AND  INSANITY. 

IT  was  well  known  he  was  an  Anarchist,  said  the  speaker.  He 
asked  their  attention  to  a  few  of  the  many  reasons  why  not  only 
himself  but  others  should  sooner  or  later  become  revolutional. 
Social  science,  or  Socialism,  said  the  speaker,  teaches  us  how  to 
understand  or  explain  facts ;  how  to  point  out  analogies,  and  thus 
discover  the  operations  of  natural  law.  To  understand  the  science 
of  life  we  must  learn  the  history  of  the  human  race,  and  by  its  past 
understand  the  present.  The  history  of  man,  in  all  its  evolutions 
and  revolutions,  was  simply  the  manifestation  of  their  economic  or 
material  condition.  Production,  and  next  to  production  the  distri- 
bution of  wealth,  forms  the  basis  of  all  moral,  intellectual,  and 
social  progress  and  order.  In  all  historical  epochs  we  find  that  the 
distribution  of  the  products  of  labor  and  the  social  grading  into 
castes  and  classes  were  in  strict  accordance  with  the  mode  of  pro- 


26  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

tluction  and  that  of  exchange.  Hence  the  primary  cause  of  all 
social  changes  and  political  revolutions  must  not  be  sought  in  the 
heads  of  man,  or  in  the  growing  enlightenment  and  conception  of 
eternal  truth  and  justice,  but  in  the  changes  that  took  place  in  the 
modes  of.  production  and  exchange.  They  must  not  be  sought  in 
the  philosophy,  but  rather  in  the  economy,  of  their  respective  epoch ; 
therefore,  the  growing  conviction  that  the  existing  social  institutions 
are  unreasonable  and  unjust,  are  simply  the  explanation  of  the 
fact  that  the  methods  of  production  and  exchange  have  undergone 
changes  until  they  can  no  longer  be  made  to  apply  to  a  social  order 
which  grew  up  under  entirely  different  economic  conditions.  The 
existing  social  order  has  outgrown  its  usefulness,  if  it  ever  had  any, 
and  for  proof  we  point  to  the  poverty  of  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
which  has  now  become  unendurable.  What  is  this  social  order  of 
which  we  speak  ?  It  is  our  modern  industrial  system,  with  its  world- 
wide markets,  based  upon  the  institution  of  private  property.  It  is 
the  private  ownership  by  a  few  members  of  society  of  the  means  of 
production  and  resources  of  life ;  such  private  ownership  creating 
two  classes — one  the  bourgeoisie,  or  propertied  class,  the  other  the 
proletariat,  or  propertyless  class.  The  propertied  are  thus  made  a 
privileged  class  who  grow  enormously  wealthy  by  absorbing  or  con- 
fiscating the  labor  products  of  the  propertyless,  who  become  the 
dependent  hirelings  of  the  propertied. 

Under  the  operations  of  the  private  property  system  modern 
Governments,  whether  an  Empire,  a  Constitutional  Monarchy,  or  a 
Democratic  .Republic  such  as  we  have  now  in  the  United  States, 
are  merely  the  managing  committees,  organized  for  the  purpose  of 
conducting  the  affairs  of  industry  in  the  interests  of  the  property- 
holding  class. 

The  social,  moral,  political,  and  religious  institutions  of  society 
are  but  the  reflex  of  the  economic. 

The  American  Eepublic  was  proclaimed  109  years  ago  to-day, 
and  its  existence  made  possible  because  the  men  of  that  time  were, 
comparatively  speaking,  economically  free  and  equal.  Their  ma- 
terial and  physical  condition  was  such  as  to  make  the  Eepublic  pos- 
sible. 

The  declaration  of  independence  that  "  all  men  are  by  nature 
created  free  and  equal "  is  as  much  a  truth,  but  less  an  actuality  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  to-day,  as  when  our  forefathers  pro- 


WESTERN   TRIP.  27 

claimed  it.  The  men  of  that  day  possessed  political  freedom  be- 
cause they  enjoyed  economic  liberty,  and  we,  their  descendants, 
are  disfranchised,  because  we  are  disinherited — deprived  of  the 
means  of  life. 

The  industrial  or  economic  enslavement  of  the  workers — the 
wealth  producers — has  destroyed  their  political  power  and  rendered 
them  the  play-things  of  that  modern  social  devil-fish,  the  politician. 
The  poor  have  no  liberties,  political  or  otherwise,  which  the  rich 
may  choose  to  deny  them.  The  right  to  sell  their  labor  is  contin- 
gent upon  whether  the  rich  choose  to  buy  it.  The  chance  to  be  a 
slave,  a  wage-slave,  is  even  denied  to  millions  of  the  propertyless 
class,  who  annually  perish  of  hunger,  disease,  and  misery  because 
thereof.  Political  liberty  without  economic  freedom  is  an  empty 
phrase.  The  possessors  of  property  also  possess  all  political  power 
in  all  modern  so-called  representative  States. 

The  ballot,  strikes,  arbitration,  isolated  co-operation,  economy, 
prayers,  or  petitions  can  no  longer  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the 
wage-slave.  So,  far  from  improving  their  condition,  the  system  of 
industry,  based  upon  private  property  with  wages  and  competition, 
not  only  renders  this  impossible,  but  must  continue  to  make  the 
rich  richer,  and  the  poor  poorer,  inevitably. 

This  system  centralizes  the  means  of  production ;  it  gathers 
the  people  into  vast  commercial  and  manufacturing  centers,  where 
the  enormous  wealth  they  create  flows  continually  into  the  coffers 
of  the  few.  Here  the  strike  is  met  with  the  lock-out,  and  the  ballot 
falls  powerless  from  the  hand  which  holds  no  bread. 

Under  this  system  periodic  panics  occur,  world-wide  in  their 
character,  growing  more  frequent  and  intense  as  the  system  de- 
velops. At  such  times  society  is  suddenly  thrown  back  into  bar- 
barism, and  thousands  perish  of  want  while  surrounded  with  the 
greatest  abundance.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  such  a  crisis  now.  Every 
country  is  searching  for  a  foreign  market  to  absorb  its  so-called 
overproduction,  and  the  captains  of  our  modern  industry,  like  Alex- 
ander of  Macedon,  bewail  the  fact  that  there  are  no  more  com- 
mercial worlds  for  them  to  conquer. 

Look  at  the  process  of  production  and  exchange  and  see  what 
it  is.  The  increase  of  the  technical  sciences,  the  division  and  sub- 
division of  labor,  the  application  of  machinery,  steam,  and  elec- 
tricity is  ever  changing  and  ever  increasing  the  productive  power 


28  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

on  one  hand  and  decreasing  the  demand  for  wage-laborers  on  the 
other.    As  the  power  to  produce  rapidly  increases,  so  does  the  op- 
portunity to  work,  and  consequently  to  live,  rapidly  diminish  on 
the  other.    The  commercial  middle-class  system  of  production  can 
not  longer  withstand  the  pressure  of  overproduction,  and  the  forces 
.  of  production  at  the  disposal  of  society  has  become  too  powerful  for 
middle-class  control.     It  has  created  the  conditions  which  will 
cause  its  destruction.    It  has  transformed  the  small  workshop  into 
the  large  factory,  and  the  individual  capitalist  is  superseded  by  the 
corporation  and  syndicate.    The  small  dealer,  merchant,  or  farmer 
is  forced  by  competition  and  the  superior  facilities  which  large 
capital  employs  to  quit  the  field  of  business,  and  are  driven  into 
the  ranks  of  the  wage-workers.    The  small  capitalist  cannot  cope 
with  the  millionaire,  and  the  individual  millionaire  must  succumb 
to  the  syndicate.    Thus  the  ranks  of  the  revolutionary  proletariat 
is  recruited  from  all  classes  of  the  population.    Thus  the  social  re- 
volution is  ever  gathering  strength  for  the  new  birth,  when  all  men 
will  indeed  be  free  and  equal.    The  movements  of  the  past  were 
the  conflicts  of  minorities  in  the  interests  of  minorities.    Not  so 
with  the  world- wide  international  labor  movement  of  to-day,  which 
is  a  movement  of  the  vast  majority  on  behalf  of  the  immense 
majority. 

The  existing  social  order,  as  everyone  now  admits,  is  the  work 
of  the  bourgeoisie.  Their  peculiar  mode  of  production,  which  we 
call  "  capitalistic  production,"  was  incompatible  with  the  local  and 
class  privileges  and  the  mutual  personal  relations  of  the  feudal 
order.  The  bourgeoisie  destroyed  the  feudal  order,  and  established 
in  its  stead  the  present  civil  society,  with  its  constitution  of  free 
competition,  equal  rights,  and  other  glorious  things,  among  those 
who  were  in  possession  of  the  products  and  means  of  production. 
Under  these  conditions  the  development  of  production  was  given 
full  sway.  Soon  the  small  manufacturer  disappeared.'  Steam  and 
machinery  took  the  place  of  human  labor  and  production  on  a  large 
scale  grew  with  unprecedented  rapidity.  And  as  in  former  times  the 
developed  small  trade  came  in  conflict  with  the  fetters  of  feudalism, 
so  now  modern  industry  is  revolting  against  the  barriers  into  which 
the  capitalistic  system  of  production  has  forced  it.  In  other  words, 
the  present  forms  of  production  have  outgrown  the  forms  of  bour- 
geoisie utilization.  .This  revolt  and  this  struggle  is  going  on  out- 


WE&TEKN   TRIP.  29 

side  of  us  and  entirely  independent  of  our  will.  Socialism  is,  there- 
fore, nothing  else  but  the  reflex  of  this  conflict  and  struggle  in  our 
sphere  of  thought  and  comprehension,  and  this  reflex  is  most  potent 
in  the  minds  of  those  who  under  the  present  system  are  suffering 
most — i.  e.,  in  the  minds  of  the  working  people. 

The  speaker  preceded  at  further  length  to  show  the  operations 
of  capitalism  in  different  countries.  He  quoted  the  United  States 
census  for  1880,  which  in  manufacturing  industries  gives  2,738,000 
wage-workers  an  average  of  $304  each,  while  250,000  "bosses" 
received  in  profit  $4,000  each  on  the  average ;  that  2,738,000  wage- 
workers  get  three-eighths  of  their  product  in  wages,  while  the  non- 
producing  class — being  less  than  one-tenth  of  the  population — 
nevertheless  appropriated  over  five-eighths  of  all  that  these 
laborers  produced ;  that  there  were  11,500  business  failures  last 
year,  90  per  cent,  of  whom  possessed  less  than  $5,000 ;  that  over 
2,000,000  persons  are  now  in  enforced  idleness ;  that  as  production 
increases  wages  decrease.  The  speaker  gave  facts  to  show  that 
the  same  condition  of  affairs  existed  throughout  Europe  as  in 
America.  He  showed  by  facts  that  poverty,  crime,  insanity,  and 
suicide  had  increased  400  per  cent,  in  proportion  to  population  in 
the  last  thirty  years. 

He  showed  the  origin  of  private  property  was  in  fraud,  force, 
and  murder,  and  that  Governments  were  instituted,  and  constitu- 
tions adopted,  and  laws  manufactured  to  uphold  and  perpetuate 
the  outrage ;  that  Government  exists  for  the  sole  purpose  of  depriv- 
ing men  of  their  natural  rights ;  that  authority  and  force  was  the 
weapon  of  tyrants  held  over  their  slaves.  The  speaker  said  that, 
after  evolving  for  109  years  under  the  Eepublic,  the  people  were 
about  to  rise  in  revolt  and  throw  off  their  economic  bondage.  He 
told  them  that  "  to  be  forewarned  was  to  be  forarmed,"  and  that 
they  must  be  prepared  to  meet  force  with  force. 


30 


A.    li.    PARSONS 


CHAPTER   II. 


LETTER  FEOM  TOPEKA,  KANSAS. 

XiARGE  AND  ENTHUTIASTIC  MEETINGS  IN  ToPEKA,  KAN.,  IN  JULY,  1885 
— CAPITALISTIC  PAPERS  THREATEN  —  LARGE  AUDIENCES  IN  ST. 
JOSEPH,  Mo. — ORGANIZATIONS  AT  FIRST  HOSTILE  TURN  TO  BE 
HEART  AND  SOUL  WITH  His  WORK — OTHER  MEETINGS  IN  OMAHA, 
NEB.  ;  KANSAS  CITY,  Mo. ;  AND  SCAMMONVILLE,  WEIR  CITY,  AND 
PITTSBURG,  KAN. — CONDITION  OF  WAGE-SLAVES  IN  THESE  MINING 
AND  SMELTING  TOWNS— THE  OWNERS' ABSOLUTE  DOMINION — LARGE 
NUMBERS  OF  UNEMPLOYED. 

GOMRADES: 
After  my  visit  to  Ottawa,  Kan.,  on  the  Fourth  of  July  last, 
where  I  delivered  an  address  to  the  working  people  of  that 
section  on  the  "Social  Revolution, "  which  was  received  by  them 
with  unbounded  enthusiasm,  I  on  Monday,  by  way  of  Kansas  City, 
made  my  way  to  Topeka,  a  city  of  25,000  people  and  Capital  of  the 
State  of  Kansas.  I  visited  the  local  assembly  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  which  has  a  very  large  membership  here,  and  made  a  short 
talk  to  them,  when  they  resolved  to.  hold  an  open-air  meeting  on 
the  Thursday  following,  and  invited  me  to  address  it.  In  Topeka 
1  found  such  stalwart  champions  of  revolutionary  Socialism  as 
Comrades  Henry,  Blakesley,  Whiteley,  Vrooman,  Bradley,  and 
others — intelligent  and  fearless  young  men  who  cry  out  against  and 
spare  not  the  infamies  of  the  capitalistic  system. 

On  Tuesday  I  returned  to  Kansas  City  and  spoke  at  a  mass-meet- 
ing of  the  working  people  at  that  place  held  on  Thursday,  July  7, 
which  had  been  arranged  by  Comrades  Bestman,  Schwab,  and 
others.  The  meeting  was  held  in  Armory  hall,  where  at  the  hour 
named,  though  the  weather  was  oppressively  hot,  fully  400  persons 
were  assembled.  They  remained  for  over  two  hours  while  I  dis- 


WESTERN   TRIP.  31 

cussed  the  principles  of  Socialism,  at  the  close  of  which  circulars, 
pamphlets,  and  copies  of  the  Alarm  were  freely  distributed,  and 
much  satisfaction  was  expressed  by  those  present  with  what  they 
had  heard.  On  the  night  following  an  open-air  meeting  was  held 
on  Market  square,  situated  in  the  center  of  the  city  upon  one  of  the 
main  thoroughfares,  where  an  audience  of  fully  1,500  persons 
gathered  around  •  the  speaker.  The  sentiments  expressed  were 
received  with  applause  and  unanimous  approbation,  and  much 
progress  was  made. 

On  Thursday  I  returned  to  Topeka.  I  found  the  columns  of 
the  capitalistic  papers  filled  with  notices  of  our  proposed  meeting. 
At  8  o'clock  p.  m.  a  crowd  of  over  1,500  people,  mostly  workingmen 
and  women,  gathered  on  the  street  corner  of  Kansas  avenue  and 
Sixth  street,  where  an  express  wagon  was  placed  in  the  middle  of  the 
street  for  the  speakers'  stand.  The  crowd  listened  for  three  hours 
with  every  sign  of  approbation,  and  a  large  American  Group  and 
several  subscribers  for  the  Alarm  was  the  result.  The  capitalistic 
papers  denounced  us  the  next  day,  and  threatened  your  humble 
speaker  with  lynching,  but  it  is  far  more  probable  that  the  working- 
men  of  Topeka  would  lynch  the  capitalists  of  Topeka  than  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  mobbed  by  them. 

The  next  day  I  departed  for  St.  Joseph,  Mo.,  a  beautiful  and 
very  wealthy  city  of  50,000  inhabitants,  where  Comrades  Christ, 
Mostler,  Nusser,  and  others  had  prepared  a  mass-meeting  in 
Turner  hall  on  Saturday.  There  had  been  considerable  talk  of  my 
advent  in  the  columns  of  the  capitalistic  press  of  that  city,  and 
many  were  the  remarks,  favorable  and  otherwise,  made  about  the 
appearance  in  their  city  of  Parsons  from  Chicago.  As  was  to 
be  expected,  the  conservative  workingmen,  who  profess  to  have 
faith  in  the  curative  powers  of  the  ballot-box,  strikes,  arbitra- 
tion, etc.,  were  loud  in  their  denunciations  of  the  revolutionary 
Socialists,  and  they  were  -at  great  pains  to  have  the  public  under- 
stand that  the  Knights  of  Labor  was  an  organization  which  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  these  "Communists,"  etc.  Well,  at  the 
hour  named  the  largest  audience  ever  brought  together  in  St.  Jo- 
seph on  such  an  occasion  were  gathered  in  the  Turner  hall,  where 
those  who  could  not  get  seats  stood  in  the  sweltering  weather  of 
a  hot  July  day  for  over  three  hours,  attentively  listening  to  and 
applauding  the  utterances  of  the  speaker.  The  meeting  created  a 


32 


A.    E.    PARSONS 


profound  impression,  and  was  the  talk  of  the  city  next  day.  On 
the  evening  following  I  spoke  to  a  large  audience  in  the  same  city, 
in  Knights  of  Labor  hall,  and  spoke  again  on  Monday  evening  be- 
fore an  assembly  of  Knights  of  Labor,  when  a  resolution  was  un- 
animously adopted  inviting  me  to  address,  at  my  earliest  conven- 
ience, an  open-air  meeting  under  the  auspices  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,  they  paying  the  expenses,  etc.  When  it  is  considered  that 
the  capitalistic  press  (there  are  three  morning  dailies  in  St.  Joseph) 
were  out  in  editorials  every  day  showing  up  the  fallacies  of  Social- 
ism, and  stating  that  such  doctrines  have  no  followers  in  that  city, 
and  that  the  Knights  of  Labor  were  especially  hostile  to  all  revolu- 
tionary teachings,  and  the  attitude  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  before  the 
meetings  were  held,  some  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  tremendous 
effect  the  agitation  produced,  when  the  men  and  organizations 
which  were  loudly  denouncing  us  are  now  heart  and  hand  with  us, 
and  have  arranged  a  mass-meeting  for  me  to  address.  It  is  satis- 
faction enough  to  know  that  three  meetings  held  in  St.  Joseph 
created  a  deep  impression,  and  have  been  the  talk  of  the  place  since. 

Monday  night,  at  1  o'clock,  I  took  the  train  for  Omaha,  Neb. 
Comrades  Ruhe,  Kretschmer,  Kopp,  and  others  had  arranged  a 
mass-meeting  in  Kessinger's  large  hall  for  Tuesday  evening.  It 
was  sweltering  weather,  and  yet  the  hall  was  crowded  with  an  at- 
tentive audience,  filled  with  about  500  persons  who  remained  and 
with  approval  and  satisfaction  listened  to  a  two  hours'  speech. 
Several  names  were  taken  for  the  formation  of  an  American  Group 
of  the  International,  and  many  copies  of  the  Alarm  sold.  It  was 
announced  that  an  open-air  meeting  would  be  held  the  following 
evening  in  Jefferson  park.  Owing  to  the  lack  of  time  to  advertise, 
not  over  500  persons  were  present.  I  spoke  to  them  for  two  hours, 
and  took  several  names  for  the  formation  of  an  American  Group. 

On  Friday  I  returned  to  Kansas  City,  where  I  found  letters  in- 
viting me  to  speak  in  Scammonville,  Weir  City,  and  Pittsburg,  in 
the  southern  part  of  the  State  of  Kansas.  Large  and  enthusiastic 
mass-meetings  were  held  in  these  places.  I  spoke  in  Scammonville 
Sunday  afternoon,  in  Weir  City  the  following  evening,  and  Pittsburg 
on  Monday  night.  Large  American  Groups  were  formed  in  the 
two  former  places. 

Let  me  describe  to  you  the  condition  of  the  wage-slaves  in  Pitts- 
burg. It  is  a  place  of  about  4,000  inhabitants,  and  has  several  coal 


WESTERN   TRIP.  33 

mines  and  smelting  works.  The  mine-owners  will  not  employ  any 
person  who  belongs  to  a  labor  organization  or  who  takes  and  reads  a 
labor  paper.  The  coal  syndicate  owns  a  truck  store,  in  which  its 
employes  are  compelled  to  trade  under  penalty  of  losing  their  bread. 
It  owns  nearly  all  of  the  houses,  and  in  all  matters  of  work  and 
social  conduct  its  commands  must  be  strictly  obeyed.  The  capital- 
istic Czars  of  that  section  hold  absolute  dominion  over  their  wage- 
slaves.  It  was"  thought  to  be  rather  risky  business  to  beard  the  lion 
in  his  den  by  holding  a  labor  meeting  within  the  domain  of  these 
capitalistic  autocrats,  but,  nothing  daunted,  our  fearless  comrades, 
John  Schrumm  and  John  McLaughlin,  of  Scammonville,  accom- 
panied me  and  we  got  out  hand-bills  announcing  the  meeting  on 
the  principal  and  only  business  street,  just  opposite  the  truck  store 
of  the  coal  company.  A  table  was  procured  and  served  as  a  plat- 
form. Comrade  John  McLaughlin,  editor  of  the  Labor  Journal, 
mounted  it  and  spoke  for  about  half  an  hour,  when  I  was  introduced 
to  the  vast  audience  which  had  assembled  and  was*  standing  in  the 
street.  Of  course,  as  you  may  suppose,  we  showed  up  in  the  strong- 
est terms  we  could  employ  the  fearful  ravages  the  "  Beast  of  Prop- 
erty" was  making  upon  the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  propertyless 
class.  The  crowd  of  men  and  women  remained  for  three  hours  and 
cheered  our  utterances  to  the  echo.  The  affair  created  a  profound 
sensation  and  was  the  talk  next  day  of  every  one  in  the  town. 
Passing  by  the  door  of  the  general  offices  of  the  coal  syndicate  next 
morning,  in  company  with  Comrades  McLaughlin  and  Alfred  Wil- 
son, on  accosting  a  man  standing  in  the  door,  he  replied :  "Go  to 
h — 1 !  I  don't  speak  to  such  as  you,"  and  when  he  had  passed  a  few 
steps,  he  added:  "You  are  nothing  but  a  lot  of  sons  of  b — s  any- 
way!" He  was  invited  to  step  outside  and  take  out  any  satisfac- 
tion he  might  desire  by  Comrade  McLaughlin,  but  he  said  nothing 
further  and  we  moved  on.  The  truck  store  of  this  town  is  devour- 
ing the  other  business  men,  and  they  all  feel  bitterly  hostile  toward 
it.  Great  good  was  done  by  our  meeting  in  this  place. 

The  capitalistic  press  state  that  there  are  over  12,000  unem- 
ployed people  in  Kansas  City,  which  is  a  place  of  about  130,000  in- 
habitants ;  that  there  rre  5,000  in  Omaha  and  about  the  same  num- 
ber in  St.  Joseph  out  of  "SYork.  The  same  holds  good  in  Topeka  and 
Council  Bluffs,  and  in  all  the  smaller  towns  large  numbers  are  out 
of  work.  I  saw  tramps  on  the  wayside  everywhere,  and  at  Nebraska 


34  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

City  junction,  on  the  Kansas  City,  St.  Joe  &  Council  Bluffs  railroad, 
on  the  Missouri  river,  in  Iowa,  I  read  the  following  printed  on  cloth 
in  large  large  letters  and  tacked  up  securely  on  the  walls  of  the  rail- 
road station : 

Tramps  Are  Hereby  Notified  to  Move  on  : 

On  my  return  to  Kansas  City  from  my  trip  to  the  mining  re- 
gions I  found  an  invitation  to  return  and  address  an  open-airmeet- 
ing  in  St.  Joseph  on  Thursday  evening,  July  23.  I  spoke  here  in 
Kansas  City  to  a  large  mass-meeting  of  workingmen,  mostly 
"  tramps,"  on  Market  square.  I  will  speak  at  the  same  place 
and  go  to  St.  Joseph,  and  thence  back  to  Chicago. 

This  trip  has  been  productive  of  much  good.  Eight  American 
Groups  of  the  International  Working  Peoples'  Association  have  been 
formed,  and  fully  '20,000  wage-slaves  have  for  the  first  time  heard 
the  gospel  of  "Liberty,  Fraternity,  and  Equality."  In  every  place 
there  were  large  and  earnest  meetings,  with  the  most  satisfactory 
results.  The  working  people  thirst  for  the  truths  of  Socialism  and 
welcome  their  utterance  with  shouts  of  delight.  It  only  lacks  organ- 
ization and  preparation,  and  the  time  for  the  social  revolt  is  at 
hand.  Their  miseries  have  become  unendurable,  and  their  neces- 
sities will  soon  compel  them  to  act,  whether  they  are  prepared  or  not. 
Let  us  then  redouble  our  efforts  and  make  ready  for  the  inevitable. 
Let  us  strain  every  nerve  to  awaken  the  people  to  the  dangers  of 
the  coming  storm  between  the  propertied  and  the  propertyless 
classes  of  America.  To  this  work  let  our  lives  be  devoted.  Vive  la 
Eevolution  Sociale ! 


EASTERN  TRIP.  35 


CHAPTER  III. 

LETTER  FROM  SALINEVILLE,  OHIO. 

THE  MINING  TOWN  OF  SALINEVILLE,  0. — THE  TRUCK  STORES — THE 
INABILITY  OF  LEGISLATION  TO  RELIEVE  THE  OPPRESSED  AGAIN 
DEMONSTRATED — THE  MORALITY  OF  MODERN  COMMERCIALISM— 
WAGES  OF  THE  MINERS — HAZARDOUS  WORK — AN  OLD  MAN'S  SUIT 
— Two  MEETINGS  HELD— THE  SALVATION  ARMY— UNENDURABLE 
CONDITIONS  MAKING  REVOLUTIONISTS. 

Taken  from  "The  Alarm"  of  January  25,  1886. 

GOMRADES: 
On  Thursday  morning,  with  fraternal  good-byes  to  friends 
in  Cleveland,  I  took  the  Cleveland  &  Pittsburgh  train  for 
Salineville,  0.,  a  mining  town  of  about  2,500  inhabitants.  Here  is 
established  a  nourishing  Group  of  earnest  workers  in  the  propa- 
ganda of  the  social  revolution.  Salineville  is  a  strictly  mining  town, 
and  when  for  any  reason  the  mines  close  up  work  all  other  business 
is  practically  suspended.  The  town  lies  in  a  hollow  along  the  banks 
of  a  creek,  for  three  miles  almost  as  straight  as  a  shoe-string,  the 
whole  population  living  upon  or  contiguous  to  one  single  street. 
There  had  been  a  big  thaw,  and  I  had  ample  occasion  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  proverbial  mud  and  slush  of  a  rough,  unpaved 
mining  town.  The  homes  of  the  miners  in  this  place  are  a  little 
better  than  I  have  found  them  elsewhere,  some  of  them  owning 
their  houses,  but  the  great  majority  are  tenants  at  will  of  the 
corporation  which  owns  the  ea*th  and  all  it  contains  hereabouts. 
Of  the  500  or  600  miners  employed  here  they  are  divided  into 


36  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

nationalities,  as  near  as  I  could  ascertain,  about  as  follows :  About 
one-half  of  them  are  Irish,  the  remainder  is  made  up  of  Welsh, 
Scotch,  English,  and  German  in  about  equal  proportions,  with  a  few 
Americans  thrown  in. 

The  "truck,"  or  "pluck-me,"  stores  are  in  full  blast  here. 
There  are  four  of  them,  each  belonging  to  a  different  mining  com- 
pany. Miners  deal  at  these  stores  under  compulsion,  where  open 
books  keep  the  running  account,  which  nearly  always  runs  ahead 
of  the  wages  paid  to  them.  These  "truck  stores"  are  also  the  pay- 
offices  of  the  company,  where  on  a  certain  day,  once  a  month,  the 
miners  go  to  settle  the  "store  account"  and  receive  the  balance,  if 
any  is  left,  in  wages.  This  arrangement  makes  it  quite  handy  for 
the  mine-owners,  who  keep  the  store  account  and  wages  due  all 
under  one  head,  and  manage  by  good  business  qualifications  and 
shrewd  management  to  make  one  generally  offset  the  other.  The 
Knights  of  Labor  and  Miners'  Union,  which  are  strong  in  Ohio, 
have,  as  usual,  sought  relief  from  the  "truck  store  system"  by  legis- 
lation. Last  year,  at  their  behest  and  by  the  aid  of  labor  politi- 
cians, a  law  was  enacted  prohibiting  the  collection  of  money  due  on 
accounts  at  these  stores  from  being  taken  out  of  wages.  The  miners 
were  happy.  They  were  told  that  under  this  law  the  truck  store 
could  no  longer  fleece  them  by  extravagant  prices  and  adulterated 
goods.  But  alas !  how  soon  was  this  "labor  legislation"  brought  to 
naught.  The  coal  companies  speedily  demonstrated  their  power  to 
control  the  law.  Formerly  ihe  miners  dealt  at  these  stores  as  a 
condition  precedent  to  employment,  but  now,  under  the  "labor  law," 
the  company  presents  the  miner  who  seeks  employment  from  them 
a  "contract"  which  they  must  sign  before  they  are  employed.  This 
"contract"  binds  the  miner  to  the  company's  service  in  many  ways, 
the  chief  of  which  is  that  he  waives  all  claim  to  protection  of  the 
law  with  regard  to  the  companies  paying  themselves  out  of  his 
wages  for  accounts  run  up  at  the  truck  stores.  Alas  for  labor  legis- 
lation !  Alas  for  "  freedom  of  contract ;"  the  "labor  law,"  as  pro- 
claimed in  the  Pittsburgh  manifesto  of  the  International,  only  serves 
to  deceive,  and  is  when  necessary  simply  evaded  by  those  who  con- 
trol the  bread  and  consequently  the  life  of  the  worker.  And  the 
"free  contract"  is  free  in  so  far  as  the  worker  must  sign  it  or 
starve!  Those  who  have  "saved"  some  money  can,  it  is  true, 
trade  at  other  stores,  but  such  action  is  regarded  as  a  base  ingrati- 


EASTERN  TRIP.  87 

tude  by  the  employers,  who  show  their  displeasure  by  refusing  em- 
ployment, and  consequently  destroying  the  ability  of  the  miner  to 
trade  at  all !  But  such  ingratitude  is  rarely  shown  by  the  men^ 
since  the  employers  keep  them  so  poor  that  they  have  no  cash,  nor 
credit,  save  at  the  "pluck-me"  stores.  The  miners  tell  me  that 
they  are  swindled  right  and  left  in  their  accounts  by  overcharges, 
short  weights,  and  adulteration.  But  these  are  our  honorable,  up- 
right, Christian,  enterprising  business  men,  who  run  their  concerns 
on  "strictly  business  principles."  Such  is  the  morality  of  com- 
mercialism. The  men  tell  me  that  many  of  them  do  not  handle  a 
cent  in  cash  during  a  whole  year!  When  the  great  "battle  for 
bread"  was  raging  in  the  Hocking  valley  last  winter  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Miners'  Union  of  Ohio  were  each  assessed  to  pay  a  cer- 
tain sum  per  month  to  aid  the  strikers,  the  miners  of  Salineville 
and  elsewhere  among  them  had  no  money,  and  they  paid  their 
assessment  in  coal  at  the  rate  of  one  ton  per  month. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  poverty  of  these  workers  where  labor 
furnishes  the  fuel  for  the  needs  of  the  people,  it  was  related  to  me 
that  a  miner,  father  of  a  family,  when  passing  from  his  daily  toil 
on  the  "coal  bank"  the  store  of  a  merchant  to  whom  he  owed  an 
unpaid  bill  for  groceries,  etc.,  the  business  man  accosted  him  and 
said :  "That  account  is  due  a  long  time,  why  don't  you  pay  me  ?" 
The  miner  answered :  "You  know  how  much  I  make  and  you  know 
it  is  not  enough  to  support  my  family  on  the  commonest  necessities 
of  life.  If  you  can  show  me  any  way  I  will  be  glad  to  do  so."  As 
the  miner  spoke  he  held  his  little  10-year-old  boy  by  the  hand,  and 
the  merchant,  eyeing  the  child  closely,  said :  "Can't  you  take  your 
son  into  the  mine  with  you  ?  He  can  earn  something,  and  in  that 
way  you  can  pay  me."  The  miner  shook  his  head,  and  as  he  walked 
away,  sadly  holding  his  little  boy's  hand  and  pondering  on  what 
the  "business  man"  had  said,  the  tears  croused  down  his  rugged 
cheek.  He  afterward  took  the  child  into  the  mine  and  paid  the 
merchant's  bill !  Such  is  the  morality  practiced  by  commercialism 
and  taught  from  the  paid  pulpit  of  the  church.  Capitalism  demands 
its  pound  of  flesh,  even  though  it  be  taken  from  the  heart  of  inno- 
cent childhood. 

The  miners  work  eleven  hours  on  an  average,  and  average  two 
tons  per  day,  at  60  cents  per  ton.  They  are  not  allowed  to  work 
more  than  six  months  in  the  year  on  an  average.  This  makes  an 


38  R.   PAKSONS' 

income  of  60  cents  per  day  the  year  round,  or  not  quite  $200  for  a 
year's  work,  upon  which  they  must  live  and  support  a  family. 
These  miners  tell  me  that  when  they  dig  two  tons  of  coal,  one  ton 
is  counted  as  worthless  by  the  company,  and  they  pay  them  nothing 
for  it.  The  nut,  pea,  and  slack  coal  averages  one-half  the  out-put ; 
the  miner  receives  60  cents  for  the  "lump  coal."  This  lump  coal 
brings.- $3  per  ton  at  wholesale  in  the  market,  for  the  mining  of 
which  the  miner  receives  60  cents,  but  the  nut,  pea,  and  slack,  for 
which  the  miner  receives  nothing,  is  also  sold  by  the  company  to 
the  working  class  of  our  cities,  who  buy  this  nut  coal  by  the  scuttle 
at  10  cents  a  scuttle,  paying  $12  a  ton  for  it,  as  the  writer  knows 
from  personal  experience  last  winter.  In  fact,  the  so-called  unmar- 
ketable coal,  for  the  digging  of  which  the  miners  are  not  paid  a  cent, 
is  sold  by  the  company  at  a  sum  which  pays  the  miners'  wages, 
Government  taxes,  insurance,  freight,  etc.,  leaving  the  "lump"  or 
marketable  coal  a  clear  wholesale  steal  in  the  hands  of  the  labor 
exploiters !  And  yet  the  Pinkerton  thugs,  the  militia,  and  armed 
murderers  are  employed  by  these  labor  robbers  on  any  pretext  to 
prevent  the  miners  from  obtaining  a  10  or  15  per  cent,  increase  on 
the  ton.  One  corporation,  the  Salineville  Coal  Company,  owes  its 
miners  two  months'  wages  for  work  done  over  a  year  ago,  and  when 
the  men  struck  for  the  pay,  over  a  year  ago,  the  company  pleaded 
poverty,  and  agreed  to  pay  it  as  soon  as  they  made  any  profit,  upon 
which  assurance  the  men  returned  to  work  and  have  been  working 
ever  since.  The  company  still  owes  the  two  months'  wages,  and 
from  all  indications  will  owe  it  forever.  The  generosity  of  the  coal 
cormorants  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  the  heads  of  families  can  have 
free  what  coal  they  can  use,  but  if  the  sons,  even  though  they  are 
grown  up  men,  work  in  the  mine  and  the  father  does  not,  why,  the 
family  is  compelled  to  buy  its  coal. 

The  life  of  these  miners  is  beset  on  every  hand  with  danger. 
Three  persons  on  the  average  are  murdered  each  year  in  the  mines, 
and  many  are  crippled  for  life,  and  still  more  contract  painful  rheu- 
matism from  exposure.  The  mine-owners  are  only  interested  in 
bringing  coal  to  the  surface  ;  but  if  this  routine  is  changed  by  the 
bringing  of  a  crushed,  mangled,  bleeding,  and  dead  miner  to  the 
surface  occasionally,  it  is  no  loss  or  concern  to  the  company.  These 
so-called  "accidents"  which  destroy  life  are  pure  parsimony  and  in- 
difference of  the  bosses,  who  will  not  provide  the  necessary  props 


EASTERN   TRIP.  39 

to  the  roof,  which  would  easily  insure  safety  to  the  miner?.  In 
blasting  the  coal,  the  hazardous  work  is  shown  by  frequent  and 
permanent  injuries  to  life  and  limb.  The  mine  air  is  foul  and  never 
pure,  and  the  place  where  the  miner  stands,  kneels,  or  lays  to  dig 
all  day  is  often  covered  with  mud  and  water,  the  water  often  cover- 
ing the  "room"  from  six  to  twelve  inches  deep.  To  dip  out  this 
water  requires  half  a  day ;  the  company  only  pays  for  coal.  The 
following  night  the  room  fills  with  water  again,  and  the  miner  must 
again  loose  half  a  day  to  dip  it  out.  The  miners  tell  me  that  twice 
a  day,  on  going  to  work  and  returning  through  the  mine  entrance, 
they  run  the  risk  of  being  crushed  to  death  by  the  falling  roof,  which 
the  company  will  not  go  to  the  expense  of  propping  and  thus  making 
safe.  A  miner  who  was  murdered  in  this  way  two  years  ago  was 
the  only  son  and  support  of  an  aged  father,  who  has  since  sued  the 
company  for  $10,000  damages.  It  took  a  year  to  get  to  the  trial, 
when  the  jury  disagreed,  and  another  year  must  roll  around  before 
it  is  tried  again,  when  the  jury  will  again  "disagree,"  or,  better  still, 
the  old,  infirm  man  may  be  dead  of  starvation  and  exposure.  This 
old  man  owed  the  truck  store,  at  the  time  of  the  suit,  $50,  and  the 
company's  agent  tried  to  persuade  the  old  man  to  withdraw  the  suit 
if  they  would  cancel  the  debt.  The  father  indignantly  rejected  the 
offer,  and  in  his  anguish  cried :  "You  miserable  scoundrels,  you 
want  to  pay  for  my  murdered  son  the  price  of  an  old  mule."  But 
miners  are  cheaper  than  mules,  nevertheless,  as  the  company  knows 
to  its  great  profit. 

As  might  be  expected,  your  correspondent  found  quite  a  dis- 
satisfied lot  of  men  in  Salineville,  and  when  the  mass-meeting 
which  our  comrades  had  arranged  there  took  place,  it  was  to  be  ex- 
pected that  a  large  attendance  would  be  present.  The  meeting  was 
announced  in  Masonic  hall,  for  which  the  proprietor  charged  the 
outrageous  price  of  $13.  This,  however,  was  the  only  hall  in  town, 
and  as  a  monopolist  he  was  master  of  the  situation,  viz. :  pay  his 
price  or  go  without.  The  Miners'  Brass  Band,  composed  of  fifteen 
musicians,  a  fine-looking  body  of  men,  discoursed  several  pieces  of 
well-executed  music  in  the  calm,  clear  atmosphere  of  New  Year's 
day  in  front  of  the  hall.  At  the  time  named  quite  a  crowd  had  as- 
sembled. At  the  opening  of  the  meeting  I  announced  for  discussion 
the  Socialistic  declaration  that  by  natural  right  and  human  neces- 
sities the  mine  belonged  to  the  miner,  the  tools  to  the  toilers,  and 


40  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

the  product  to  the  producers.  Any  other  arrangement  of  affairs  left 
the  producers  a  dependent,  hireling  class,  at  the  mercy  of  the  non- 
producers.  The  poverty  of  the  miners  was  the  same  as  all  other 
workers — enforced  and  artificial.  The  parasites,  the  drones  in  the 
industrial  hive,  absorbed  all  the  honey  and  made  the  industrious 
workers  drudge  and  slave  for  them. 

Their  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  strikes,  boycotts, 
arbitration,  and  voting  could  not  adjust  the  trouble  between  capi- 
talists and  laborers.  What  was  necessary  was  not  to  soften  and 
palliate  their  wage-slavery  (which  would  not  be  done),  but  its  abo- 
lition. To  abolish  the  capitalist  and  destroy  his  power  to  rob  and 
enslave  would  be  to  place  all  capital  and  means  of  subsistence  into 
the  hands  of  the  people  for  their  free  use.  All  could  then  volun- 
tarily co-operate  in  the  production  and  distribution  of  the  wealth, 
and  poverty  and  want  would  be  unknown  and  impossible. 

This  and  much  else  was  said  in  proof  of  the  statement  that  the 
existing  social  system  not  only  made  but  kept  the  producers  poor, 
and  there  was  no  help  for  it  until  that  infamous  system  was  de- 
stroyed utterly. 

The  first  meeting  was  held  in  the  afternoon  at  2  p.  m.,  the  sec- 
ond the  same  evening  at  7 : 80  p.  m.  The  greatest  interest  was 
shown  at  both. 

As  seen  from  the  above  facts,  the  bodies  of  these  miners  are 
already  lost  and  damned,  and  yet  for  three  months  this  town  has 
been  afflicted  with  the  marching  and  countermarching  of  the  Salva- 
tion Army.  The  Salvationists  are  trying  to  save  for  the  next  world 
the  souls  of  these  poor  people,  whose  bodies  have  already  been 
ruined  in  this,  and  they  gain  some  adherents,  too.  Keligion  in  this 
form  comes  cheap ;  you  can  take  it  on  the  sidewalk  or  elsewhere, 
as  necessity  or  convenience  dictates.  Between  the  actual  hell  and 
the  fear  of  a  future  one  they  keep  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  in 
a  great  ferment.  The  Captain  of  the  company  is  a  young  woman 
of  17  summers,  which  is  quite  an  attractive  feature.  A  Lieutenant, 
another  young  woman,  has  already  become  a  Mary  Magdalene,  but 
unlike  Christ,  their  master,  they  have  not  only  cast  the  first  but 
the  last  stone  at  her,  and  she  is  now  an  outcast.  Here,  as  else- 
where, the  churches  are  the  partners  of  mammon.  The  Catholic 
priest  tells  his  congregation  to  beware  of  the  godless  Socialists  and 
Anarchists,  and  warns  them  against  the  evils  of  social  revolution. 


EASTERN  TRIP.  41 

In  his  speech  here  recently  he  said  to  them  that  when  they  become 
hungry  they  must  go  to  the  authorities  first,  and  if  they  refuse  to 
give,  then  take  food,  and  if  arrested  they  must  not  resist,  but  obey 
the  authorities  and  go  quietly  to  prison.  "All  things  work  together 
for  good  to  them  who  love  God,"  says  he,  quoting  the  scripture. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  a  most  decided  revolutionary  spirit 
among  the  men  generally ;  they  all  feel  that  something  must  be 
done  and  quite  a  number  have  the  courage  to  say  so,  and  a  few  are 
prepared  to  act. 

They  all  declare  that  the  existing  system  is  infamous,  but  their 
respect  for  law,  for  authority,  both  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  as 
taught  them  by  the  press,  politician,  and  priest,  restrains  them 
from  taking  decided  action.  The  burden  meanwhile  grows  heavier 
and  more  heavy,  and  it  will  ere  long  become  unendurable,  when, 
God  or  no  God,  law  or  no  law,  they  will  cast  it  off. 


42  A.    R.    PARSONS' 


CHAPTER  IV. 


LETTER  FEOM  THE  SMOKY  CITY. 

TEN  DAYS  AMONG  THE  WAGE- SLAVES  OF  PENNSYLVANIA — LARGE  MEET- 
INGS AT  COAL  CENTER  AND  ELIZABETH — MAGNIFICENT  RESOURCES 
OF  THE  COUNTRY — POVERTY  AND  MISERY  OF  THE  PEOPLE — STRONGLY 
DEFINED  CLASS  DISTINCTIONS — INEVITABLE  CONFLICT  BETWEEN 
THE  PRIVILEGED  CLASSES  AND  THE  DISINHERITED — TRAMPS  AND 
STARVING  MEN  IN  A  REGION  OF  WEALTH — ROBBERY  AND  EVICTIONS 
BY  THE  COAL  CZARS  OF  CONNELLSVILLE — ARMED  SOLDIERS  AND 
SHERIFFS  SUPPRESS  THE  POVERTY-STRICKEN  PEOPLE — LARGE  MASS- 
MEETINGS  IN  PITTSBURGH — MR.  GESSNER'S  ADDRESS — STRONG  RE- 
SOLUTIONS UNANIMOUSLY  ADOPTED — NEED  OF  GOOD  LEADERSHIP — 
SOCIALISM  A  NECESSITY. 

Taken  from  "The  Alarm"  of  February  4,  1886 

OMRADES : 

Since  writing  my  last  report  in  the  Alarm  I  have  spent  ten 
among  the  wage-slaves  of  Pennsylvania.  One  mass-meet- 
ing was  held  at  Coal  Center  and  another  at  Elizabeth,  on  the  Mo- 
nongahela  river.  Coal  Center  is  located  fifty  miles  above  Pittsburgh, 
in  the  Monongahela  valley.  From  Coal  Center  to  Pittsburgh  is  one 
continuous  coal  mine  of  almost  inexhaustible  quantity.  The  coun- 
try is  beautiful  with  its  valleys,  mountains,  and  river,  and  is  said 
by  those  who  claim  to  know  to  be  almost  as  picturesque  as  Switzer- 
land. The  soil  is  of  the  richest  character ;  the  great  hills  abound 
with  coal,  iron,  stone,  oil,  natural  gas.  The  river  is  navigable,  and 
bounded  on  either  side  of  its  bank  by  a  railroad.  The  climate  is 
delightful  and  healthy,  the  water  pure.  With  all  these  natural  con- 


EASTERN   TRIP.  43 

ditions  of  abounding  wealth  which  only  requires  the  magic  touch 
of  labor's  hand  it  would  be  reasonable  to  expect  that  its  inhabitants 
were  prosperous  and  happy.  But,  alas  for  our  boasted,  so-called 
modern  civilization !  Amid  this  unlimited  natural  wealth  there  is 
the  most  extreme  poverty  and  intense  misery,  and  what  is  true  of 
this  region  I  find  to  be  the  same  deplorable  condition  wherever  I  go. 
In  Alleghany  City,  a  place  of  great  wealth,  and  in  Pittsburgh 
and  elsewhere  the  gaunt  faces  of  misery,  hunger,  and  woe  meet  one 
on  every  hand.  Pennsylvania  is  the  richest  State  in  the  American 
Union,  and  Pittsburgh  and  the  region  around  about  is  its  center. 
The  invested  capital  of  this  State  is  mainly  engaged  in  employing 
labor  at  productive  work.  Here  are  the  mines,  mills,  and  factories 
of  America,  and,  of  course,  the  class  distinctions  of  wage-slaves  and 
capitalistic  masters,  of  proletariat  and  bourgeoisie,  the  most  clearly 
visible  and  well-defined.  Here  the  operations  of  the  modern  com- 
mercial system,  which  produces  for  profit  only,  holds  supreme  sway, 
and  its  effects  upon  the  people  are  visible  on  every  hand,  viz. :  the 
colossal  wealth  of  the  idle  few,  the  agonizing  poverty  of  the  in- 
dustrious many.  The  system  of  private  ownership  and  control  of 
capital,  which  makes  of  the  propertyless  a  dependent,  hireling  class, 
subjecting  them  to  the  selfish  whims  and  greed  of  the  privileged 
few  who  possess  the  legal  right  to  own  and  control  the  labor  prod- 
uct of  the  laborers,  has  full  play  in  the  "common  ( ?)  wealth  of  Penn- 
sylvania." Shoeless  children,  who  dare  not  leave  their  miserable 
shanties,  sometimes  called  "homes,"  to  go  to  school  or. to  work 
over  the  ice  or  through  the  snow,  are  to  be  seen  everywhere.  Thinly 
clad,  emaciated,  care-worn  women,  bowed  down  with  drudgery  and 
anxiety,  meet  you  on  all  sides.  Miserable,wretched,  poverty-stricken 
men,  young  in  years,  stalwart  in  frame,  yet  old  in  gait  and  shrunken 
with  misery,  greet  your  eyes  at  every  turn.  Crammed  and  filled  are 
the  work-houses,  prisons,  poor-houses,  police  stations,  charity  socie- 
ties, penitentiaries,  and  the  "Potter's  Field." 

"  Rattle  their  bones  over  the  stones, 

They're  only  poor  workmen  whom  nobody  owns." 

Look  on  that  picture,  then  on  this,  viz. :  Palatial  mansions, 
everything  that  wealth  can  supply,  licentious  luxury,  profligacy, 
idleness,  and  corruption  among  the  "successful  enterprisers"  who 
have  exploited,  degraded,  and  enslaved  their  fellow-men. 


44  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

There  is  fierce  conflict,  internal  warfare  on  every  side,  raging  ' 
between  the  privileged  and  disinherited.  Strikes  are  met  with 
lock-outs;  bread  riots  are  met  with  police  clubs,  bayonets,  and 
gatling  guns;  the  "pious  fraud"  plies  his  vocation  and  threatens 
the  rebellious  slaves  with  eternal  damnation  and  the  wrath  of  God 
when  oppression  compels  them  to  disregard  the  "law  and  order"  of 
their  earthly  masters ;  the  poor-houses  and  prisons  are  filled  with 
the  unfortunates  whose  inability  to  find  employment  makes  them 
objects  of  Governmental  care,  and  dungeons  and  prison  cells  are 
crammed  with  wage-slaves  who  have  "conspired"  against  starva- 
tion wages,  and  thus  violated  the  "organic  law"  of  the  capitalistic 
system.  Everything  is  done  by  contract.  The  labor  exploiters  pre- 
pare a  "  free  contract"  for  their  wage-slaves  to  sign  as  a  condition 
precedent  to  employment,  which  they  are  at  perfect  liberty  to  sign 
or  starve  !  And  this  "freedom  of  contract"  is  held  inviolate  by  the 
courts  and  Judges  of  capitalism. 

The  report  of  the  superintendent  of  the  Bethel  home  in  Pitts- 
burgh, a  semi-charitable  institution  where  a  bed  or  a  meal  can  be 
had  for  5  cents,  made  his  annual  report  a  few  days  ago  to  the 
public  that  25,276  tramps  were  provided  for  in  this  institution  the 
past  year.  And  only  one  institution  heard  from ! 

Ten  thousand  miners  and  coke-makers  are  on  a  strike  for  a  10 
per  cent,  advance  of  their  starvation  wages  in  the  Connellsville 
region,  contiguous  to  this  city,  and  the  mine  and  coke  czars  have 
issued  their  ukas  ordering  them  to  vacate  their  tenements,  and  the 
police  and  militia  are  under  arms,  awaiting  the  word  of  command 
from  the  Government  to  evict  the  rebels,  dispossess  them  of  their 
miserable  shanties  at  the  point  of  a  bayonet,  and  cast  the  helpless 
women  and  innocent  children  out  into  the  snow.  Shades  of  Irish 
landlordism !  your  blighting  shadow  has  fallen  upon  America  as 
well.  First  robbed  and  then  evicted  because  they  are  dissatisfied 
with  the  robbers.  And  it  is  said  that  Americans  are  to  be  employed 
in  the  place  of  these  ungrateful  "foreigners."  If  the  foreigner  is  no 
longer  satisfied  with  the  blessings  of  this  "free  country,"  why,  the 
"American  sovereign  is  to  be  employed  in  his  place,"  say  the  capi- 
talists. But  will  the  experiment  prove  a  success  ?  May  not  Ameri- 
can sovereigns  and  freemen  also  discover  that  patriotism  is  a  very 
poor  substitute  for  bread  ?  We  shall  see. 

The  men  at  the  Edgar  Thompson  steel  works  at  Braddock,  a 


EASTERN   TRIP.  45 

Pittsburgh  suburb,  had  to  strike  against  twelve  hours  exhausting 
labor.  What  then  ?  Over  100  men,  armed  with  14-repeating  Win- 
chester rifles,  and  about  forty  deputy  Sheriffs,  armed  to  the  teeth, 
were  employed  by  the  company  to  preserve  "law  and  order."  These, 
with  the  aid  of  the  Very- Rev.  Father  Hickey,  of  that  place,  induced 
the  "ungrateful"  wage-slaves  to  return  to  their  slavery.  Ungrate- 
ful, I  say,  because  do  not  capitalists  claim  that  they  furnish  the 
working  class  with  bread,  and  that  if  it  were  not  for  them  and  their 
business  enterprises  the  workers  would  starve!  "The  ungrateful 
wretches  must  be  kept  orderly  and  quiet,"  say  the  bosses. 

The  flood-gates  of  poverty  have  been  turned  loose.  Hard  times ; 
no  work ;  hard  work  and  poor  pay,  describes  the  situation,  and  to 
maintain  their  legal  right  to  control  the  natural  rights  of  others  the 
property-holding  class  are  strengthening  the  police,  increasing  the 
army,  recruiting  the  militia,  building  new  jails,  work-houses,  poor- 
houses,  and  enlarging  the  penitentiaries.  Entrenched  behind 
"organic  law,"  church  and  State,  sustained  by  bayonets,  maintain 
the  supremacy  of  our  capitalistic  "law  and  order"  regime. 

Of  course,  the  wage-slaves,  the  proletarians,  are  not  indifferent 
to  the  conditions  that  surround  them.  They  have  massed  their 
forces  in  labor  organizations,  principally  the  Knights  of  Labor 
and  trades  unions.  But  these  labor  organizations  have  built  their 
house  upon  a  foundation  of  sand,  which  the  wind,  rain,  and  storm 
of  poverty  now  descending  upon  it  will  wash  away.  In  fact,  the 
foundation  seems  to  be  gone  already,  and  the  impending  wreck  of 
the  whole  structure  is  at  hand.  They  do  not  and  cannot  regulate 
the  work-hours ;  they  do  not  and  cannot  keep  up  wages  or  provide 
employment  to  the  enforced  idle.  Any  labor  organization  which 
cannot  do  this  for  its  members  is  of  no  value  to  them  whatever. 
These  organizations  are  at  cross-purposes  with  themselves.  They 
fight  the  effects  of  a  system,  but  defend  and  protect  the  system 
itself.  Result :  failure. 

Socialism  is  soon  to  become  the  trustee  of  these  bankrupted 
capitalistic  labor  organizations,  which  are  now  being  weighed  in  the 
balance  and  found  wanting.  Out  of  their  ashes,  Phoenix-like,  will 
arise  the  new  social  regime.  On  their  ruins  Socialism  will  erect 
the  mansions  of  "Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality, "  which  shall  endure 
forever,  for  Socialism  gives  homes  to  the  homeless,  land  to  the  land- 
less, liberty  to  the  slave,  wealth,  happiness,  and  prosperity  to  all ! 


46  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

Necessity,  the  mother  of  invention,  will  compel  the  wage-slaves  of 
all  nations  to  turn  to  Socialism  as  their  only  savioi . 

At  Coal  Center,  on  the  Monongahela  river,  we  held  successful 
and  important  mass-meetings  of  citizens  and  miners.  Before  my 
arrival  I  was  threatened  with  being  rotten-egged  and  mobbed,  so 
thoroughly  and  skillfully  had  the  capitalistic  politicians  and  priests 
worked  up  a  sentiment  of  hatred  toward  the  detested  Anarchists. 
But  it  proved  a  boomerang  to  recoil  upon  themselves,  for  after  the 
people  heard  me  present  the  claims  of  Socialism  they  showed  me 
every  possible  courtesy,  taking  me  to  the  best  tavern  and  paying 
for  my  board  bill,  and  assuring  me  that  they  intended  to  send  for 
me  to  return  among  them  soon,  when  they  would  get  the  whole 
country  around  there  to  turn  out  and  hear  Socialism. 

In  Monongahela  City  no  hall  could  be  had  for  love  or  money, 
and  hence  no  meeting,  as  the  weather  was  too  cold  for  an  open-air 
address. 

At  Mansfield,  Pa.,  myself  and  a  few  Pittsburgh  comrades  held 
a  very  well-attended  mass-meeting  among  the  citizens  of  that  sub- 
urb. After  my  address  an  English  miner  rose  and  said  that  he  was 
a  God-fearing  man  and  a  Christian ;  that  Socialism  was  Christian- 
ity. He  had  a  family  of  six  children,  and  his  wages  for  the  past 
two  weeks'  work  was  $4 !  I  interrupted  him  to  inquire  if  he  had 
not  made  a  mistake,  when  several  other  miners  present  corroborated 
what  he  said,  and  stated  tha.t  some  of  them  got  even  less  than  that 
sum.  The  English  miner  continued,  and  said  that  they  were  robbed 
unmercifully  by  false  weight  of  coal  and  at  the  infamous  truck 
stores.  Said  he :  "I  would  rather  die  on  the  battle-field  than  to 
continue  to  live  as  I  am."  He  said  he  would  join  the  International, 
but  it  was  opposed  to  God.  Man  suffered  because  of  sin.  God 
commanded  us  to  work  six  days,  but  the  bosses  made  us  work  seven 
in  the  week.  All  we  had  to  do  was  to  obey  God  and  "love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself." 

This  miner  was  told  in  reply  that  the  command  to  work  six 
days  was  absurd  and  impossible,  because  on  certain  portions  of  the 
earth  the  days  were  six  months  long.  That  to  obey  God  was  cer- 
tain slavery,  for  had  he  not  said :  "Servants,  obey  your  masters  and 
be  obedient  to  those  placed  in  authority  over  you "?  And  as  for 
loving  one's  neighbor  as  one's  self,  how  could  there  be  peace  on 
earth  and  good  will  to  those  who  were  engaged  in  robbing  and  kill- 


EASTERN   TRIP.  47 

ing  us  ?  The  English  Government  held  its  sway  over  Ireland  because 
the  Catholic  church  commanded  obedience  to  the  scriptures.  The 
Irishman  has  the  choice  of  obeying  God  and  slavery,  or  disobedience 
and  liberty.  Which  ?  To  abandon  the  world  to  the  robbers  and 
seek  a  paradise  beyond  this  life,  among  the  unknown  and  unknow- 
able, was  to  let  go  the  bird  in  the  hand  and  chase  the  one  in  the 
bush.  No  doubt  ministers  of  the  gospel  would  be  opposed  to  this 
earthly  paradise,  which  an  observance  of  nature's  law  would  give 
to  all,  because  it  would  abolish  sin  and  his  occupation  as  a  soul- 
saver  would  be  gone. 

The  meeting  was  well  received,  but  here,  as  elsewhere,  the  men 
are  too  poor,  having  been  on  long  strikes  and  out  of  work  and  money, 
to  subscribe  for  the  Alarm. 

Last  Saturday  evening  in  the  Jane  Street  Turner  hall,  on  the 
south  side  of  Pittsburgh,  a  large  mass-meeting  greeted  us  in  re- 
sponse to  the  following  announcement  made  in  hand-bills : 

Workingmen's  mass-meeting  at  Turner  hall,  Jane  street,  S.  S.,  to-night. 
The  workingmen  and  citizens  of  the  south  side  will  hold  an  indignation  meet- 
ing on  Saturday  evening,  January  30,  at  7:30  o'clock,  to  denounce  the  use  of 
police  and  military  to  overawe  strikers,  and  also  to  take  action  in  regard  to 
the  introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery  in  our  iron,  steel,  and  glass  in- 
dustries. Every  workingman  and  woman  should  be  present.  Free  discussion. 
Everybody  invited.  The  Committee. 

The  hall  was  filled,  and,  on  motion,  F.  M.  Gessner,  editor  of 
the  American  Glass-Worker,  a  weekly  trade  journal  published  in 
Pittsburgh,  was  made  Chairman.  He  said,  substantially : 

"LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  No  one  seems  disposed  to  introduce 
the  gentleman  who  speaks  to  us  to-night,  but  my  courtesy  to  strang- 
ers bids  me  to  do  it.  The  workingmen  of  Pittsburgh  should  be  here 
in  thousands,  but  possibly  because  the  victims  of  oppression  in  the 
coke  regions  now  being  driven  into  slavery  at  the  bayonet  point 
are  Hungarians,  there  is  prejudice  against  them.  Well,  be  it  so. 
So  much  the  worse  for  us  and  our  organizations  that  the  cause  of 
these  people  is  ignored  by  us,  and  it  is  left  for  the  hated  and 
despised  Anarchists  and  Socialists  to  step  boldly  to  the  front  in 
their  behalf.  The  unwelcome  truth  calls  for  heroes.  The  poor 
Hun  is  being  crushed  and  only  the  hated  Anarchist  comes  to  his 
rescue.  Are  we  doing  our  duty  ?  Let  the  hated  Anarchist  roll  his 
drum  to-day,  but  in  the  long  roll  I  believe  our  organization  will 


48  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

stand  in  line  and  every  man  answer  'Aye.'  I  am  not  here  as  an 
Anarchist,  for  I  do  not  clearly  yet  understand  their  position. 
But  the  time  has  come  for  the  utterance  and  acceptance  of  the 
truth,  however  unwelcome  it  may  be  to  some.  I  ask  your  courteous 
attention  to  what  Mr.  Parsons,  of  Chicago,  has  to  say." 

I  discoursed  to  the  audience  for  about  two  hours,  and  was 
cheered  throughout  to  the  echo,  and  at  the  conclusion  of  my  speech 
the  following  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously  by  the  large 
audience  present,  which  was  composed  mainly  of  Americans : 

Resolved,  By  this  mass-meeting  of  workingmen  of  Pittsburgh,  that  the 
employment  of  police  and  militia  to  suppress  strikes  and  compel  working 
people  to  submit  to  starvation  wages  paid  by  monopolists  and  capitalists,  as 
witnessed  in  the  recent  struggle  of  the  miners  on  the  Monongahela  river,  the 
rolling-mill  men  at  Braddock,  and  the  coke -workers  of  the  Connellsville  region 
and  elsewhere,  demonstrates  that  the  employers  of  labor  rely  upon  force  to 
compel  obedience  to  their  dictation  ;  it  therefore  becomes  the  bounden  duty 
of  all  workingmen  who  value  their  life,  liberty,  and  happiness  to  arm  and  pre- 
pare themselves  to  successfully  resist  the  oppressions  of  their  capitalistic 
masters. 

Resolved,  That  the  monopolistic  or  private  control  of  recent  inventions  in 
labor-saving  machinery,  together  with  the  use  of  natural  gas  in  the  manufac- 
ture of  iron,  steel,  and  glassware,  has  destroyed  the  means  of  subsistence  of 
tens  of  thousands  of  wage-workers  by  rendering  their  labor  superfluous;  there- 
fore, it  is  our  bounden  duty,  in  order  to  live  and  enjoy  liberty,  to  take  the 
means  of  human  subsistence  out  of  the  control  and  ownership  of  private  indi- 
viduals and  place  them  where  they  by  natural  right  belong,  viz.:  into  the 
hands  of  society  for  the  free  use  of  all,  thus  destroying  forever  the  monopo- 
listic system  of  private  capital  in  the  means  of  life,  which  breeds  the  curse  of 
poverty,  ignorance,  intemperance,  disease,  crime,  and  vice. 

Resolved,  That  it  is  the  conviction  of  this  mass-meeting  that  the  time  has 
arrived  when  the  workingmen  of  America  must  arise  and  proclaim,  and  main- 
tain by  any  and  all  means,  their  inalienable  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness. 

I  cannot  close  this  brief  report  without  calling  attention  to 
Pennsylvania,  and  Pittsburgh,  its  industrial  center,  as  the  natural 
cradle  of  the  social  revolution.  Here,  as  nowhere  else  in  America, 
the  growth  and  development  of  the  capitalistic  system  of  mass- 
production  has  prepared  the  way  by  precept  and  example  for  the 
transition  from  the  old  to  the  new  civilization.  All  the  conditions 
exist  for  the  rapid  and  stalwart  growth  of  the  revolutionary  prole- 
tariat. There  is  but  one  thing  lacking,  viz. :  leaders.  The  trades 
unions  and  Knights  of  Labor  have  organized  the  wage- workers  for 


LULU   EDA   PARSONS. 


EASTERN   TRIP.  49 

amelioration,  which  can  never  come.  The  leaders  of  these  bodies 
are  still  chasing  the  ignis  fatuus  of  politics,  and  the  further  they 
go  the  deeper  they  sink  into  the  quagmire  of  the  political  swamp, 
until  the  cry  already  comes  out  of  the  gloom :  "Help,  help  !"  It  is 
my  deliberate  judgment  that  one-half  the  talent,  energy,  and  means 
expended  in  Pittsburgh  that  has  been  in  Chicago  would  give  the  re- 
volutionary movement  ten  members  where  it  now  has  one.  But  un- 
fortunately the  Socialistic  propaganda  here  has  neither  an  Amer- 
ican, German,  or  other  organizer  and  agitator;  no  press,  and 
consequently  but  little  vitality.  The  harvest  is  great,  but  the 
harvesters  are  few.  There  is  great  probabilty  of  another  trades 
union  riot  here  like  that  of  1877.  These  are  the  inevitable  social 
eruptions  which  make  Socialism  a  necessity. 

I  leave  here  to-day  for  Canton,  0.,  thence  to  Massillon,  Mans- 
field, Columbus,  Hocking  Valley,  Springfield,  0.,  and  back  to 
Chicago.  Salut. 


50  A.  R.  PARSONS' 


CHAPTER  V. 


IN  THE  OHIO  COAL  EEGIONS. 

LARGE  MEETINGS  IN  CANTON — WEALTH  OF  THE  COUNTRY  AND  POVERTY 
OF  THE  MASSES  COMPARED — EXHAUSTIVE  AND  RESPONSIBLE  LABOR 
PAID  12|  CENTS  PER  HOUR — CHILDREN  HUNTING  FOR  NUGGETS  OF 
COAL — MEETING  IN  MASSILLON — ONE -HALF  THE  WORKING  POPULA- 
TION IN  COMPULSORY  IDLENESS — ONE -THIRD  OF  THE  WHOLE  LIVING 
ON  CHARITY — USELESSNESS  OF  THE  BALLOT  IN  THE  HANDS  OF  WAGE- 
SLAVES — INTERESTING  MEETING  AT  NAVARRE — DEPLORABLE  CON- 
DITION OF  THE  WORKERS — FROM  NAVARRE  TO  MANSFIELD — THREE 
SUCCESSFUL  MEETINGS  IN  COLUMBUS. 

Taken  from  "The  Alarm"  of  February  30,  1886. 

aOMRADES. 
Since  my  last  report  in  the  Alarm  I  have  addressed  sev- 
eral large  mass-meetings  of  working  people  in  the  State  of 
Ohio.   Two  mass-meetings  were  held  in  Canton  on  Friday  and  Sat- 
urday, February  5  and  6. 

Canton  is  a  railroad  center  and  manufacturing  town  of  about 
20,000  inhabitants,  in  Stark  county,  which  rates  third  in  the  list  of 
the  wealthiest  counties  in  the  State  of  Ohio.  Nevertheless,  right 
here  in  the  midst  of  this  superabundance  of  wealth,  strong  men, 
their  wives  and  children,  are  homeless,  starving,  and  freezing. 
Bear  in  mind,  Canton  is  located  in  the  third  wealthiest  county  of 
this  State ;  its  soil  is  unsurpassed ;  its  coal,  stone,  water,  natural 
gas  exists  in  unlimited  quantities  and  unsurpassed  qualities ;  the 
climate  the  most  healthy — yet,  in  the  presence  of  this  natural  wealth, 
we  find  in  this  little  city  200  families  of  able-bodied  men  to  whom, 
being  compelled  to  be  idle,  the  authorities  have  to  give  charity  to 


EASTEI.N   TRIP.  51 

prevent  them  from  begging,  stealing,  or  starving !  Five  hundred 
other  families  of  strong,  healthy  men  are  kept  in  enforced  idleness 
and  receive  aid  in  one  form  or  another  from  churches,  clubs,  friends, 
neighbors,  etc. 

Allowing  five  persons  to  a  family,  we  find  that  Canton,  with  its 
20,000  inhabitants,  has  3,500  human  beings  who  have  been  made 
mendicants  and  paupers  and  are  being  driven  into  vagabondage  and 
crime,  prostitution  and  suicide  by  means  of  our  industrial  system. 
Let  me  give  one  or  two  detailed  facts  with  which  the  writer  is  per- 
sonally acquainted.  At  the  iron  and  steel  works  in  Canton  the  man 
who  fires  six  boilers  and  regulates  the  steam  in  them  tells  me  that 
he  is  kept  spinning  like  a  top  for  ten  to  twelve  hours  each  day,  doing 
this  work  in  person,  and  that  the  least  oversight  on  his  part  would 
cause  an  explosion  of  the  boilers  that  would  kill  at  least  forty  or 
fifty  of  the  200  men  employed  in  the  mill.  For  the  performance  of 
this  exhaustive  labor  and  grave  responsibility  he  receives  the  sum 
of  12^  cents  per  hour ! 

In  the  midst  of  the  terrible  blizzards  and  snow  I  saw  little  4 
and  5-year-old  girls,  clad  in  thin  and  tattered  garments,  scraping 
the  snow  with  their  fingers  among  the  railroad  tracks  where  engines 
are  constantly  switching  to  and  fro,  hunting  for  nuggets  of  coal 
wrhich  may  have  dropped  from  passing  trains !  While  here  I  read 
in  the  capitalistic  press  of  the  town  that  an  unemployed  workman, 
driven  to  desperation,  dashed  a  stone  through  a  plate-glass  window 
in  a  store  on  a  principal  business  street,  and,  waiting  till  an  officer 
of  the  law  arrested  him,  he  gave  as  a  reason  that  he  was  out  of  work, 
money,  and  friends,  and  adopted  this  plan  to  keep  from  freezing 
and  starving  to  death !  But  enough.  I  might  add  much  more,  but 
space  forbids. 

Two  very  large  mass-meetings  were  held  here.  The  first  one 
was  addressed  by  myself ;  the  second  by  Comrades  Louis  Kirchner, 
of  Canton,  and  Christ.  Saam,  of  Cleveland,  in  German,  and  myself 
in  English.  The  utterances  of  the  speakers  were  loudly  applauded. 
Several  new  members  to  the  American  and  German  Groups  were 
obtained,  besides  many  subscribers  to  the  Alarm,  Vorbote,  Freiheit, 
and  Parole. 

From  Canton  I  went  to  Massillon,  a  manufacturing  and  mining 
town  of  about  12,000  population.  Here  I  found  one-half  of  the 
working  people  in  compulsory  idleness,  and  one-third  of  the  whole 


52  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

number  of  mendicants  living  on  charity,  credit,  etc.  A  large  meet- 
ing greeted  me  at  this  place.  For  over  two  hours  the  most  undivided 
attention  was  given  to  the  presentation  of  the  causes  which  make 
paupers  of  those  whose  industry  creates  all  wealth. 

Owing  to  the  long-continued  enforced  idleness  the  "strike"  trou- 
ble has  been  solved,  viz. :  the  workers  no  longer  have  a  chance  to 
"strike." 

Here  is  located  the  celebrated  Eussell  &  Co.  harvester  and 
reaper  factory  and  machine  foundry,  employing  several  hundred 
men.  Conspicuous  on  one  of  the  folding  doors  at  the  entrance  of 
this  capitalistic  pen  of  wage-slaves  is  posted  a  larg?  bill,  printed  in 
very  large  letters,  to-wit : 

Vote  for  Garfield  and  Arthur,  and  our  protective  tariff  and  good  wages. 

Hancock  and  English  are  pledged  to  support  a  low-revenue  tariff,  which 
means  little  work  and  low  wages,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  cotton  aristocrats 
of  the  Solid  South  and  British  manufacturers. 

This  electioneering  bill  is  eight  years  old.    But  it  tells  its  own 
story.     The  1,000  American  sovereigns,  freemen,  and  voters  at 
work  in  this  capitalistic  slave-pen  "took  the  hint"  and  acted  accord- 
ingly.   Never  was  there  better  practical  demonstration  of  the  truth 
that  patriotism  is  the  greatest  of  all  humbugs,  a  sentiment  believed 
in  only  by  fools  and  nurtured  only  by  knaves.    This  factory  is  "the 
pride"  of  this  little  capitalistic  town ;  it  does  a  large  business  in 
steam  engines  and  other  machinery.   This  week  two  lately  invented 
molding  machines  have  been  introduced  into  the  foundry,  each  of 
which  does  the  work  of  twenty  molders,   rendering  their  labor 
superfluous  and  reducing  their  wages  to  zero !     Alas  for  the  Am- 
erican sovereign,  freeman,  and  voter,  about  whom  our  trades  union 
and  other  conservative  labor  organizations  prate  so  much  !     Eight 
in  this  establishment  I  found  "American  freemen"  who  said  they 
were  afraid  to  attend  a  public  meeting  of  working  men  for  fear  of 
discharge.    Freemen  indeed  !    Let  me  say  that  my  readers  must 
not  imagine  that  Eussell  &  Co.'s  is  the  only  "slave-pen."    No,  no. 
All  capitalistic  institutions  are  precisely  alike  in  their  operations. 
They  all  exploit  and  degrade  the  wealth-producers. 

At  Navarre,  a  mining  town  of  3,000  people,  the  "skating  rink" 
had  been  secured  for  the  "Anarchist"  speaker  to  address  the  people 
in.  This  town  is  located  on  the  Tuscarawa  river,  in  a  beautiful 


EASTERN   TRIP.  53 

valley,  through  which  passes  a  railroad.  The  soil  of  the  surround- 
ing country  is  of  unsurpassed  fertility ;  the  hills  abound  in  coal,  iron, 
stone,  and  gas.  But  to  what  a  sad  plight  has  the  capitalistic  system 
of  wage-slavery  brought  the  American  laborer !  A  miner  tells  me  that 
the  500  or  600  miners  living  here  were  permitted  to  work  about  one- 
third  time  the  past  year.  This  miner  said  his  family  consisted  of  a 
wife  and  three  children.  His  wages  the  past  year  amounted  to 
$89.76.  Kent  was  $5  per  month ;  powder  for  120  tons  of  coal  which 
he  dug  was  $15.75 ;  three  gallons  of  oil  was  $3 ;  sharpening  tools 
was  50  cents ;  total  expense  for  rent,  powder,  oil,  and  tools,  $79.25 ; 
balance  left  for  foot  and  clothes,  $10.51 !  This  allows  less  than 
one-fourth  of  a  cent  per  day  for  food  and  clothes.  "Incredible!" 
you  say.  Talk  of  the  Chinese,  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe,  but  these 
American  sovereigns  can  discount  them.  "How  did  he  live?"  you 
asrk.  Well,  in  this  way.  The  country  round  about  is  the  richest 
farming  land  in  the  world.  The  rich  farmers  who  own  it  find  in 
these  poverty-stricken  miners  an  unfailing  supply  of  cheap  labor, 
paying  for  odd  jobs  and  a  few  days'  work  in  the  harvest  season  the 
sum  of  50  cents  per  day  !  Sometimes  they  only  give  what  a  hungry 
man  can  eat  in  return  for  a  day's  hard  work.  A  miner  told  me 
that  he  had  to  buy  on  credit  in  the  year  1884  $5  worth  of  potatoes 
from  a  rich  farmer.  Last  year  (1885)  he  had  no  money  to  pay 
thd  debt,  and  told  the  farmer  he  would  work  it  out.  He  worked  four 
days,  over  twelve  hours  per  day,  and  finished  the  job.  He  asked 
the  farmer  to  let  him  have  a  few  bushels  of  potatoes  again  on  credit, 
as  he  had  no  money,  when  he  was  informed  that  not  until  he  paid 
what  was  owing  last  year  could  he  get  any  more.  The  miner 
replied  that  he  thought  his  work  had  paid  the  debt.  The  farmer 
said :  "No,  sir ;  you  owe  me  $2.80  yet,"  and  the  miner  could  get  no 
more  potatoes. 

The  wage-slaves  of  America  have  to  pay  such  high  prices  for 
coal  that  many  of  them  are  forced  to  stint  themselves  in  the  use  of 
it,  while  the  miner  is  freezing  and  starving  also.  This  is  the  Legis- 
lative district  from  which  John  McB.,  labor  politician,  member 
of  the  Ohio  Legislature,  and  President  of  the  Ohio  State  Miners' 
Association,  hails.  As  well  might  the  herd  of  sheep  appeal  to  the 
wolves  for  protection,  as  for  the  despoiled  workers  to  look  to  the 
statute  books  for  redress. 

I  found  hearty  greeting  in  Navarre.     The  "rink"  was  crowded, 


54  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

and  the  brass  band,  consisting  of  fourteen  instruments  performed 
by  miners,  regaled  the  people  with  some  choice  selections  of 
music.  The  meeting  was  attended  by  the  priest,  banker,  and  lawyer, 
and  none  could  or  would  deny  the  truths  of  Socialism.  A  large 
American  Group  was  formed  and  many  subscribers  obtained  for 
the  Alarm. 

From  Navarre  I  went  to  Mansfield,  the  home  of  John  Sherman, 
Ohio's  member  of  the  American  House  of  Lords,  sometimes  called 
the  Senate.  Ohio's  John  has,  by  strict  economy,  industry,  and 
sobriety  during  his  term  of  office  the  past  twenty  years,  on  a  salary 
of  $5,000  per  annum,  amassed  a  handsome  little  sum  for  a  "rainy 
day"  during  his  old  age,  which  amounts  to  several  million  dol- 
lars. Thrifty,  industrious,  sober  John,  you  have  reaped  the 
reward  of  the  good,  the  virtuous,  and  the  true  !  Successful  states- 
man, you  hive  amassed  millions  out  of  the  stolen  product  of  the 
American  wage-slave,  while  at  the  same  time  making  your  victim 
believe  that  you  were  his  benefactor.  But  Democrats  and  Republic- 
ans vie  with  each  other  in  playing  the  role  of  the  statesman ;  that 
is,  the  manufacture  of  the  coward's  weapon,  the  tool  of  the  thief — 
statute  law!  In  spite  of  the  air  of  American  "patriotism,"  now 
descended  to  jingoism,  which  pervades  the  atmosphere  of  Mansfield, 
the  streets  were  lined  with  American  sovereigns  in  compulsory 
as  elsewhere,  idleness,  who  have  not  where  to  lay  their  weary  heads. 
In  Columbus,  the  Capital  of  Ohio,  we  have  held  three  very 
successful  mass-meetings  in  the  city  hall,  a  large  and  costly 
structure. 

The  first  mass-meeting  was  held  Friday  evening,  February  12, 
one  on  Saturday  evening,  the  third  being  held  on  Sunday  afternoon 
in  the  city  hall  at  2:30  o'clock.  The  audiences  were  quite  large 
'  and  intelligent.  They  expressed  hearty  approbation  of  what  they 
heard,  and  a  large,  intelligent,  and  resolute  American  Group  of  the 
International  was  organized. 

Columbus  is  the  place  where  Ohio's  law-factory  is  located,  and 
in  which  the  politicians  of  the  State  are  hunting  for  jobs.  Here  are 
to  be  found  many  institutions,  the  offspring  of  statute  law,  the 
most  noteworthy  of  which  is  the  State's  prison,  or  penitentiary. 
The  Legislature,  or  law-factory,  produces  and  renders  penitentiaiies 
necessary,  for  there  must  be  some  place  to  provide  for  those  out- 
casts the  statute  law  manufactures. 


EASTERN   TEIP.  55 

It  is  estimated  by  those  who' ought  to  know  that  fully  one-half 
of  the  wage-workers  of  this  city  are  out  of  employment.  There  was 
never  before  such  destitution  among  the  people.  Able-bodied  men 
seek  in  vain  for  an  opportunity  to  work  and  provide  their  families 
with  the  necessaries  of  life.  On  every  hand  there  is  unoccupied 
land,  empty  houses,  and  idle  machinery,  while  on  every  side  there 
is  the  landless,  homeless,  starving  multitude.  What  but  statute 
law  has  disinherited  these  people?  Does  not  the  State  Trades 
Assembly  of  Ohio  deserve  the  title  of  capitalistic  labor  organization 
when  at  its  recent  convention,  held  in  this  city,  it  refused  to  take 
eight  hours,  but  instead  referred  the  matter  to  the  Legislature  and 
petitioned  the  labor  robbers  to  give  it  to  them,  "if  they  please"  ? 

Meanwhile  the  capitalistic  system  extorts  its  pound  of  flesh 
from  the  quivering  heart  of  the  disinherited.  The  wealth  of  the 
wealthy  grows  constantly ;  the  poverty  of  the  poor  increases  all  the 
while. 

The  statistics  of  Ohio,  taken  from  the  United  States  census  for 
1880,  show  that  in  manufactures  the  invested  capital  was  $47,000,- 
000  larger  in  1880  than  in  1870,  while  the  number  of  manufacturing 
establishments  was  2,070  less  in  1880  than  in  the  year  1870.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  number  of  wage-workers  employed  in  manufac- 
ture in  Ohio  was  46,407  larger  in  1880  than  in  1870.  Wages  were 
$20  less  on  the  average  in  1880  than  in  1870. 

Thus  we  see  the  workings  of  the  monopolistic  system  of  interest, 
profit,  and  rent  in  the  fact  that  under  the  workings  of  the  economic 
law  of  capitalism  in  the  State  of  Ohio  in  ten  years  the  number  of 
manufactories  diminished  10  per  cent.,  invested  capital  increased 
25  per  cent.,  and  the  number  of  wage-workers  employed  was  in- 
creased 25  per  cent.,  thus  reducing  the  number  of  the  rich  but 
increasing  the  number  of  the  poor;  and  while  wages  decreased 
profits  increased,  thus  increasing  the  wealth  of  the  wealthy  and  the 
poverty  of  the  poor.  This  is  the  working,  the  unavoidable  result  of 
the  capitalistic  system.  What  will  it  lead  to  ? 


56  A.  R.  PARSONS' 


CHAPTER  VI. 


SPEECH  IN  SPKINGFIELD,  0. 

A  COLD  HALL  BUT  A  GOOD  AUDIENCE — FUTILITY  OF  ATTEMPTING  TO 
EEMEDY  AN  EFFECT  WITHOUT  UNDERSTANDING  ITS  CAUSE — EXIST- 
ING INSTITUTIONS  BASED  ON  FORCE — ORIGIN  OF  PRIVATE  PROPERTY 
TRACED  TO  CONQUESTS  IN  THE  MIDDLE  AGES — MACHINERY — DE- 
VELOPMENT OF  CAPITALISM  IN  THE  PAST  DECADE — THE  MIDDLE 
CLASS  FORCED  INTO  THE  BANKS  OF  THE  WAGE-SLAVES. 

Taken  from  a  Springfield  Capitalistic  Paper  of  February  36,  1886. 

ACBOWD  of  several  hundred  people  gathered  at  the  Mikado 
skating  rink  last  night  to  hear  the  Socialist,  Parsons,  of  Chi- 
cago, deliver  an  address  on  the  subject  of  labor  and  capital. 
He  was  introduced  at  half -past  7  o'clock  by  the  Chairman,  A.  E. 
Poling,  and  spoke  for  three  hours,  although  the  hall  was  cold  as  a 
dead  man's  feet.  He  opened  his  remarks  with  a  gentle  reminder 
that  the  hall  was  cold,  but  said  hs  hoped  to  warm  his  hearers  up 
before  he  got  through. 

He  spoke  in  substance  as  follows : 

"I  am  not  here  to  win  the  applause  or  the  approval  of  the 
audience  so  much  as  to  perform  my  duty  at  a  serious  time  in  the 
history  of  this  country  and  civilization,  and  to  lay  before  them  for 
calm  and  deliberate  consideration  matters  that  affected  their  pros- 
perity, happiness,  and  very  existence.  This  meeting  is  composed 
mainly,  if  not  entirly,  of  workingmen  and  women.  There  must  be 
something  of  interest  that  will  bring  out  a  crowd  like  this  on  such  a 
night  as  this.  Your  interest  in  this  is  only  an  indication  of  the 
great  spirit  of  unrest  and  discontent  that  is  spreading  throughout 
the  four  corners  of  the  world.  We  are  to  consider  to-night  the 


EASTERN   TRIP.  57 

difference  between  the  capitalists  of  this  country  and  the  working 
people.  What  I  have  to  say  is  from  the  standpoint  of  a  Socialist. 
I  wish  to  speak  to  you  upon  Socialism,  upon  co-operation,  labor, 
upon  Anarchy.  There  is  something  that  is  producing  the  con- 
dition of  affairs  which  we  witness  all  around  us  to-day.  There  must 
be  a  cause  for  every  effect.  A  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Why  is 
there  such  an  unrest  and  discontent  among  the  people  ?  This  is 
the  thing  to  be  sought  for.  We  must  ascertain  the  cause  before 
we  can  remedy  it  or  before  we  can  treat  properly  the  effect  result- 
ing from  that  cause.  Upon  every  hand  we  witness  the  indications 
which  point  unmistakably  to  a  Socialistic  revolution.  This  revolu- 
tion may  be  peaceful ;  it  may  be  violent ;  but  that  there  is  a  revolu- 
tion pending  no  intelligent  man  can  doubt.  The  Socialists  ascribe 
this  to  the  existing  system  of  industry  known  as  capitalism.  What 
is  this  ?  It  is  the  monopolization  by  a  few  of  the  means  of  human 
existence,  the  appropriation  by  a  few  of  the  means  whereby  other 
people  live.  What  is  this  institution,  and  whence  does  it  come  ? 
It  had  its  origin  in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  its  more  recent  develop- 
ment has  been  of  a  very  modern  character.  The  private  owner- 
ship of  land,  its  monopolization  by  a  few ;  the  private  ownership  of 
capital,  the  means  of  production  and  common  exchange;  the 
system  of  private  property ;  the  ownership  by  a  few  of  machinery, 
of  lands,  of  houses,  of  all  the  implements  of  production  and  ex- 
change. The  private  ownership  of  capital  is  the  cause  of  the  diffi- 
culties under  which  we  are  suffering.  It  had  its  origin  in  the 
Middle  Ages  in  violence,  in  bloodshed,  and  in  war.  The  existing 
system  of  industry  and  the  existing  civilization  of  the  world  had  its 
origin  in  force,  in  physicial  violence,  and  it  came  about  by  one  set 
of  men  in  the  center  of  Europe  seeing  the  peaceful  valleys  below, 
the  waving  harvests,  the  lowing  herds,  and  the  industry  of  the 
peaceful  vale,  and  looking  with  jealousy  upon  these  peaceful  habi- 
tations. They  swept  dcrwn  upon  them,  seized  their  property,  put 
the  men  to  death,  captured  their  women  and  children,  bound  them 
in  chains  and  held  them  as  personal  slaves,  appropriating  the  land, 
houses,  and  property  of  these  people.  This  is  the  origin,  and  it  is 
producing  the  results  which  we  see  to-day." 

The  speaker  went  on  to  show  the  difference  between  now  and 
twenty-five  years  ago,  claiming  that  the  invention  of  labor-saving 
machinery,  the  discovery  of  steam  and  electricity,  were  detrimental 


58  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

to  our  country's  interest,  when  monopolized.  He  illustrated  his 
point  by  citing  the  trade  of  a  shoe-maker.  Twenty-five  years  ago 
one  man  made  the  whole  shoe  and  was  in  business  for  himself,  but 
now,  with  the  invention  of  labor-saving  machinery,  it  took  fifty-two 
men  to  make  one  shoe,  so  that  a  man  in  that  trade  now  is  only  the 
fifty-second  part  of  a  shoe- maker.  This  is  what  the  Socialists 
mean,  he  said,  when  they  speak  of  the  development  of  the  capital- 
istic system  and  the  effect  which  it  produced. 

The  speaker  then  took  the  census  of  1880  in  Ohio  and  deduced 
the  following  conclusions :  In  the  State  of  Ohio  in  1880  there  were 
$47,000,000  more  employed  as  capital  than  in  1870.  In  other  words, 
in  ten  years  the  capital  engaged  in  the  manufacturing  industries  in 
Ohio  increased  $47,000,000.  While  the  capital  increased  nearly 
$50,000,000  the  number  of  the  capitalists  engaged  in  manufactur- 
ing decreased  2,070.  There  were  46.407  more  wage-workers  em- 
ployed in  1880  in  these  industries  than  in  1870.  The  wages  in  1870 
on  the  average  were  $357.62;  in  1880, '$334. 18.  Wages  were  re- 
duced during  these  ten  years  15  per  cent. ;  the  profits  were  20  per 
cent,  greater.  The  number  of  manufacturers  had  decreased,  the 
amount  of  capital  invested  had  increased,  and  the  wage-workers 
had  increased  nearly  50,000,  thus  proving  that  the  rich  are  get- 
ting richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  The  number  of  those  who  are  rich 
is  decreasing,  but  the  riches  of  the  rich  are  constantly  increasing. 
That  is,  he  who  five  years  ago  was  a  millionaire  is  to-day  worth  ten 
millions,  but  where  there  were  five  millionaires  five  years  ago,  to-day 
there  are  only  three.  That  is,  the  number  of  those  who  are  driven 
to  the  necessity  of  working  for  daily  wages  is  increasing,  while  the 
number  of  those  who  cannot  find  employment  at  any  piice  is  also 
increasing.  These  results,  the  speaker  continued,  from  three  dif- 
ferent causes.  The  army  of  the  unemployed,  those  who  are  kept  in 
compulsory  and  enforced  idleness,  is  being  swelled.  How?  First, 
by  labor  saving  machinery;  and  second,  by  the  crowding  out  of  the 
middle-class,  and  destroying  them,  and  dividing  them  into  the 
class  of  wage- workers.  Thus  this  army  is  being  increased  all  the 
time;  the  necessities  of  the  people  constantly  increase,  and  the 
opportunities  to  satisfy  their  wants  constantly  dimmish.  These 
are  the  forces  that  are  generating  the  social  revolution.  There  is 
increased  profit  for  the  capitalist ;  reduced  wages  for  the  employed 
class ;  the  number  of  those  who  are  seeking  employment  increases, 


EASTERN   TEIP.  59 

and  the  number  of  those  who  find  employment  decreases ;  capital 
is  increased  and  piled  up  until  we  have  some  men  in  this  country 
whose  wealth  can  be  estimated  at  over  $200,000,000. 

The  speaker  then  strayed  from  the  argument  and  gave  some 
interesting  figures  in  regard  to  Vanderbilt's  fortune  of  over  $300,- 
000,000.  He  said  if  this  amount  of  money  was  laid  along  in  $1 
bills  it  would  reach  25,000  miles,  or  clear  around  the  earth.  If  it 
was  coined  into  silver  it  would  take  fourteen  freight  trains,  each 
consisting  of  seventeen  cars,  pulled  by  two  locomotives  each. 

He  next  quoted  Bradstreet,  of  commercial  agency  fame,  as  fol- 
lows :  Last  year  there  were  11,500  business  men  who  went  to  their 
financial  death,  and  of  these  90  per  cent,  had  a  capital  of  less  than 
$5,000  each.  This  shows  that  the  capitalistic  system  is  like  the 
whale  in  the  ocean — the  big  fish  eat  the  minnows,  and  the  big  cap- 
italists swallow  the  small  business  men.  The  property  of  these 
12,000  men  represented  over  $200,000,000.  Their  bankruptcy  did 
not  mean  that  this  money  was  destroyed ;  it  meant  that  it  was 
transferred  to  the  richer  fellows'  pockets,  and  that  there  were  12,000 
more  men  in  the  United  States,  who  had  been  in  business  for  them- 
selves, now  compelled  to  work  for  wages.  Kich  people  make  their 
money  in  two  ways :  when  they  get  property  from  the  smaller 
business  men  they  make  it  indirectly,  and  when  they  make  it  from 
the  working  classes  they  make  it  in  a  direct  way,  or  straight.  There 
were  foreclosures  of  mortgages  alone  in  the  United  States  of  nearly 
$500,000,000. 


60  A.   R.    PARSONS' 


CHAPTER  VII. 


A  POSTHUMOUS  LETTEE. 

INTERESTING  ACCOUNT  OF  SOME  OF  THE  DIFFICULTIES  THAT  BESET  THE 
PATH  OF  A  EEFORMER — EDITOR  WINEHART,  OF  THE  COAL  CENTER 
"MESSENGER"  ADVISES  THE  WORKINGMEN  TO  EECEIVE  AGITATOR 
PARSONS  IN  A  HOSTILE  MANNER,  BUT  AFTERWARD  CHANGES  His 
OPINION — EFFECT  OF  THE  MASS- MEETING  ON  THE  AUDIENCE — No 
LEADERS — THE  PROPAGANDA  SUFFERS  FROM  WANT  OF  MEANS. 

Y  DEAR  WIFE : 

*  *  *  My  trip  would  till  a  volume  with  the  realistic  side 
of  life  under  wage-slavery  and  an  occasional  gleam  of  grim 
humor.  Everywhere  I  have  met  with  the  most  gratifying  success 
— under  the  circumstances.  The  lack  of  means  to  properly  adver- 
tise, and  the  haste  resulting  from  the  same  cause,  has  alone  pre- 
vented complete  and  lasting  results.  Under  such  circumstances 
one  cannot  do  what  they  would,  but  only  what  they  can.  As  I  said, 
my  trip  is  overflowing  with  interest,  especially  to  one  like  you,  whose 
whole  being  is  wrapped  up  in  the  progress  of  the  social  revolution. 
I  will  give  you  a  sample  incident,  reserving  others,  owing  to  their 
length,  until  I  return  home.  It  was  at  Coal  Center,  some  fifty  miles 
from  Pittsburgh,  on  the  Monongahela  river.  There  was  no  one  with 
whom  I  could  communicate  except  the  editor  of  the  weekly  paper 
published  there.  I  was  twenty  miles  from  Monongahela,  and  at  the 
instance  of  Comrade  Eobert  F.  Hill  sent  a  note  announcing  a  mass- 
meeting  to  be  held  on  the  following  day. 

Well,  on  that  day  I  reached  the  place  about  2  o'clock  p.m.,  and 
found  myself  a  total  stranger  in  a  country  town,  which  is  a  quaint, 


EASTERN   TKIP.  61 

singular-looking  place,  located  in  the  narrow  valley  along  the  banks 
of  the  Monongahela  and  overshadowed  by  the  towering  hills  of  this 
region.  The  streets  are  dotted  with  groups  of  three  and  four  men, 
coarsely-clad,  grim-visaged,  sturdy,  and  stolid ;  the  weather  cold 
and  shivering ;  the  prospect  all  but  inviting.  Not  knowing  which 
way  to  turn,  I  naturally  inquired  for  the  office  of  the  Messenger. 
Once  there  I  inquired  for  the  proprietor,  Mr.  Winehart,  and  at  once 
introduced  myself  to  him.  I  found  him  to  be  a  young  man  of  35,  a 
genuine  type  of  the  modern  American — lank,  thin-visaged,  keen- 
eyed,  quick-witted,  and  resolute.  After  a  few  words  I  inquired  if 
he  had  received  my  note.  He  replied  that  he  had,  and  had  pub- 
lished it ;  upon  request  I  was  handed  a  copy  of  the  paper. 

The  day  was  cold  and  depressing,  the  town  uninviting,  and  the 
man  who  stood  before  me  as  chilly  as  an  iceberg.  Imagine,  then, 
my  situation  when  I  read  the  comment  on  the  announcement,  which 
advised  the  workingmen  of  Coal  Center  to  receive  Agitator  Parsons 
with — rotten  eggs,  and  throw  him  into  the  river !  I  said  to  myself : 
"Steady,  steady — there  is  hard  work  ahead!" 

"Well,"  said  I,  looking  up  and  addressing  the  editor  who  stood 
near  by,  "how  is  this?" 

"That's  our  opinion  of  agitators  in  this  region,"  he  replied. 

"I  should  expect  such  treatment  from  the  coal  syndicate,"  said 
I,  "but  not  from  those  whom  it  oppresses." 

I  remembered  that  the  Messenger  was  the  only  paper  in  the  val- 
ley which  stood  by  the  miners  in  their  long  strike,  and  while  wonder- 
ing at  its  hostility  toward  me  the  editor  said : 

"Well,  sir,  those  are  our  sentiments.  These  infernal  agitators 
are  a  curse  to  us.  They  have  ruined  this  valley.  They  have  kept 
the  miners  idle  and  they  ought  to  be  drowned." 

While  he  spoke  his  jaws  were  firmly  set  and  bis  countenance 
determined  and  pale. 

"Well,  sir,"  said  I,  keeping  perfectly  cool,  "I  have  seen  the 
papers  of  this  valley  abusing  you  because  you  stood  for  the  strug- 
gling miners,  and  I  judged  from  it  you  were  something  of  an  agita- 
tor yourself,"  and  I  eyed  him  closely  and  I  perceived  I  had  fired  a 
shot  that  struck  him.  "And,"  said  I,  "you  certainly  must  concede 
that  Thomas  Buckle,  the  author  of  the  'History  of  Civilization, 'was 
right  when  he  said,  that  the  barrier  to  all  progress  and  civilization 
is  the  indifference  and  inertness  of  the  people.  That  agitators  are 


62  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

public  benefactors  whether  they  be  right  or  wrong,  as  they  do  for 
the  people  what  is  done  for  a  person  who  is  freezing  in  a  snow- 
storm— they  shake  up  the  dying  man  and  prevent  him  from  freez- 
ing.— You  have  read  that  work  ?" 

"No,"  said  he,  "I  haven't ;  but  our  valley  is  ruined  and  these 
agitators  have  done  the  work." 

I  paid  no  attention  to  this  latter  remark  and  began  to  read  his 
paper.  After  five  or  ten  minutes  I  said  to  him : 

"I  am  a  stranger  here  and,  of  course,  don't  know  whether  I 
can  get  a  hall  or  not.  Do  you  know  of  any  hall  ?" 

"Yes,"  said  he,  "there  are  two  (giving  the  names),  but  I  think 
Guiske's  the  best." 

A  smile  of  satisfaction  ran  over  my  face  as  I  reflected  and  said 
to  myself :  "1  have  melted  this  man ;  he  need  not  have  given  me 
this  information,"  and  on  the  principle  that  "he  who  hesitates  is 
lost."  I  said :  "Do  you  know  Mr.  Guiske  and  would  you  spare  the 
time  to  walk  down  that  way  ?" 

"I  don't  care  if  I  do,"  said  he,  and  putting  on  his  coat  we 
strolled  leisurely  down-town  together.  Meantime  I  was  engaged  in 
conquering  my  antagonist.  I  said  nothing  about  Socialism,  but 
asked  questions  about  truck  stores,  coal  bosses,  miners,  etc.,  etc. 
Walking  three  blocks,  we  did  not  find  the  proprietor  of  the  hall  in, 
and  upon  the  invitation  of  the  editor  we  strolled  around  the  town 
to  find  him.  This  took  another  half  hour. 

Well,  then  we  returned  to  Guiske's  store ;  he  had  left  word 
with  his  wife  to  have  him  call  at  his  office. 

An  hour  or  more  passed  in  casual  conversation  when  the  hall- 
man  appeared.  Winehart  engaged  the  hall,  which  is  run  as  a  skat- 
ing rink,  and  is  up  stairs  over  two  brick  stores  owned  by  the  same 
man.  He  accompanied  us  to  the  hotel.  Winehart  said :  "This  is 
Mr.  Parsons  from  Chicago ;  give  him  the  best  you  have  in  the  house 
and  send  the  bill  to  me."  He  remained  with  me  until  1  o'clock 
that  night,  and  on  bidding  me  good-night  said :  "Parsons,  I  made  a 
mistake,"  and,  holding  my  hand,  he  continued :  "Count  me  your 
friend ;  put  down  my  name  for  the  Alarm.  We  must  have  you  here 
again  right  away,  and  we  will  endeavor  to  raise  the  money  and 
send  for  you  from  Pittsburg  before  you  go  back  to  Chicago,  when 
we  will  have  over  a  thousand  men  to  hear  you." 

Everything  considered,  this  whole  affair  was  remarkable.     In 


EASTERN   TRIP.  63 

this  instance  it  can  be  said  of  Socialism  what  Caesar  said:  "Veni, 
vidi,  vici." 

The  impression  created  upon  that  audience  that  night,  as  well 
as  all  others  I  have  addressed,  was  tremendous.  It  seemed  to  stun 
them.  They  acted  as  a  man  who  has  been  traveling  a  whole  day  and 
felicitating  himself  that  he  is  near  his  journey's  end  when  it  sud- 
denly dawns  upon  him  he  has  traveled  the  wrong  direction,  and 
must  retrace  his  steps.  He  stops,  sits  down  to  rest,  and  ponders. 

Things  are  in  a  bad  way  in  this  region.  There  are  no  leaders 
among  the  wage-slaves  here. 

Oh,  that  I  had  the  means  !*  I  would  batter  down  the  ramparts 
of  wrong  and  oppression  and  plant  the  flag  of  humanity  on  the 
ruins.  Truly  the  harvest  is  great,  but  it  takes  time  and  means,  and 
no  great  means  either,  but  more  than  we  have.  But  patience, 
patience ! 

Your  loving  husband, 

ALBERT  E.  PARSONS. 
PITTSBURGH,  Pa.,  January  26,  1886. 

*  The  grand  jury's  indictment  alleged,  among  other  things,  that  Mr.  Parsons  was  only  in 
the  movement  for  the  money  which  he  could  make  of  his  dupes. 


PART  III. 


CHAPTER  I. 


MEETING  IN  SOUTH  BEND,  IND. 

MB.  PARSONS'  EVENTFUL  SPEECH  TO  THE  WAGE-SLAVES  or  THE  STUDE- 
BAKER,  OLLIVER,  AND  SINGER  MANUFACTORIES — DISTRIBUTING  VIC- 
TOR HUGO'S  "ADDRESS  TO  THE  EICH  AND  POOR" — THE  SLAVERY  OF 
LABOR — POWER  OF  THE  PROPERTIED  CLASS  OVER  THE  PROPERTYLESS 
— STRIKE  OF  THE  SOUTH  BEND  WORKERS  AND  THE  CALLING  OUT  OF 
THE  POLICE  AND  MILITIA— SENSATIONAL  INTERRUPTION — MR.  PAR- 
SONS' LIFE  IN  DANGER  —  His  DEFENDERS — His  COOLNESS — IN- 
STANCES OF  MILITARY  POWER  OVER  WEALTH- PRODUCERS — FALSE 
OVERPRODUCTION— ENFORCED  IDLENESS — INEVITABLE  EESULTS — 
GOVERNMENT  THE  CREATION  OF  THE  PRIVILEGED  CLASSES — ELO- 
QUENT APPEAL  TO  ORGANIZE,  AGITATE,  REVOLT. 

Taken  frpm  "The  Alarm"  of  October  15,  1884. 

OUTH  BEND,  Ind.,  contains  the  three  largest  wagon,  plow, 
and  sewing-machine  factories  in  America,  besides  several 
smaller  establishments,  giving  employment  and  subsistence 
to  a  population  of  20,000  persons.  The  Studebakers,  Ollivers, 
Singers,  and  other  capitalistic  czars  who  own  this  town  have  so 
completely  subjugated  iheir  wage-slaves  to  the  despotism  of 
private  capital  that  no  person  dares  belong  to  a  labor  organiza- 
tion, and  if  suspected  of  being  connected  with  such  is  at  once 
discharged. 


66  A.    B.    PAESONS 

On  going  to  this  town  last  week  it  was  not  surprising  to  find 
that  no  one  would  identify  themselves  or  be  known  as  having  any- 
thing to  do  with  arousing  and  organizing  the  laborers.  Two  thou- 
sand copies  of  the  following  hand-bill  were  distributed  on  Wednes- 
day: 

Workingmcn's  mass-meeting,  Thursday,  September  24,  at  7'30  p.  m.,  in 
front  of  Court-House.  Subject:  "Low  Wages,  Hard  Times,  and  No  Work. 
What  Shall  We  Do?"  Every  workingman  and  woman  in  South  Bend  should 
attend.  The  Committee. 

At  the  time  appointed  over  1,000  men  and  women  had  gath- 
ered in  response  to  the  call.  Mr.  Frank  Avery,  of  Mishawauka, 
acted  as  Chairman,  and  introduced  A.  E.  Parsons,  of  Chicago. 
Mr.  Parsons  stepped  forward  and  began  distributing  among  the 
audience  copies  of  Victor  Hugo's  "Message  to  the  Eich  and  Poor." 

The  speaker  then  said  that  no  doubt  his  hearers  had  often 
read  about  the  Anarchists,  Communists,  and  Socialists.  To-night 
they  could  see  and  hear  one  and  judge  for  themselves  of  the 
merits  of  Socialism.  The  speaker  said  that  Socialism  declared 
the  rich  to  be  "  devils  bred  in  hell,  and  dogs  with  hearts  of 
stone,1'  because  their  "paradise  is  made  out  of  the  hells  of  the  poor ;" 
and  Socialism  proclaimed  that  "  not  to  be  a  slave  was  to  dare 
and  do.  '  The  slavery  of  labor  to  capital  was  as  complete  in 
South  Bend  as  anywhere  else.  Men  of  families  were  working  for 
80  cents  per  day,  and- hundreds  were  walking  the  streets  unable 
to  find  any  employment  at  all.  The  slavery  of  labor  was  seen 
in  the  fact  that  wage-workers  were  compelled  to  do  ten  hours'  work 
for  three  hours'  pay,  and  their  only  choice  was  between  such  a  con- 
dition of  labor  or  compulsory  idleness,  which  meant  no  bread  at  all. 
Low  wages  and  no  work  created  hard  times,  and  "hard  times"  was 
created  by  the  private -property  system,  which  deprived  the  people* 
of  their  inalienable  right  to  the  free  use  ot  all  the  means  of  life. 

Shakespeare  had  Shylock  say :  "You  do  take  my  life  when  you 
take  the  means  whereby  I  live,"  and  this  is  precisely  what  every 
capitalist  has  done ;  they  have  made  capital  private  property,  and 
thus  deprived  the  workers  of  the  means  of  life  and  the  right  to 
live.  The  Czar  of  Eussia  possessed  no  more  despotic  power  than 
that  which  the  propertied  class  exercise  over  the  propertyless. 
Every  capitalist  could  and  did  discharge  from  employment  the 
worker  or  workers  who  complained  of  the  unfair,  and  unjust,  and 


IN   SOUTH  BEND,  IND.  67 

•cruel,  and  oppressive  conditions  under  which  they  were  forced  to 
labor.  The  power  to  withhold  bread  and  doom  the  workers  to  a 
life  of  misery,  hunger,  and  death  was  possessed  and  exercised  by 
the  capitalistic  czars  of  South  Bend,  as  everywhere  else.  The 
right  to  live  carried  with  it  the  right  to  the  free  use  of  all  the 
means  of  life,  and  those  who  were  denied  that  right  were  the  bonds- 
men and  slaves  of  those  who  do.  The  capitalistic  system  of  labor 
had  divided  the  people  into  classes,  and  had  rendered  the  natural 
law,  the  solidarity  of  interests  among  the  people,  an  impossibility. 
This  system  had  created  masters  and  slaves,  rulers  and  ruled, 
robbers  and  robbed.  In  South  Bend  Olliver,  of  the  plow  works, 
who  performed  no  labor  at  all,  received  an  income  of  $1,500  clear 
profit  each  day,  while  his  1,000  wage-slaves  did  ten  hours'  work 
each  and  received  for  each  day's  work  in  wages  a  sum  that  was 
equivalent  to  three  hours'  work.  What  became  of  the  other  seven 
hours  ?  Olliver  got  it,  and  this  was  what  made  his  $1,500  per  day.  If 
the  men  struck  against  these  terms  they  were  discharged  and  made 
to  suffer  the  pangs  of  hunger  and  want.  Such  was  the  power  which 
the  private-property  system  conferred  upon  the  owners  of  capital. 
Studebaker,  and  Singer,  and  all  the  other  property  beasts  could 
and  did  exercise  the  same  despotic  power.  Where,  then,  is  the 
boasted  liberty  of  the  American  wage-worker  ?  In  what  does  their 
freedom  consist?  They  enjoyed  the  right  to  be  wage-slaves ;  or, 
striking  and  refusing  to  be  such,  they  were  free  to  starve  ! 

Last  January  in  South  Bend  the  workers  struck  against  starv- 
ation wages,  and,  driven  to  desperation  and  madness,  they  sought 
to  destroy  those  who  were  enslaving  and  destroying  them.  What 
did  the  property  class  do?  They  had  the  military  and  police 
called  out  to  arrest  and  shoot  their  rebellious  wage-slaves.  The 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  which,  twenty-five  years  ago,  drew 
its  sword  to  liberate  the  black  chattle  slave  from  bondage,  came 
to  South  Bend,  and  with  gleaming  bayonets  and  flashing  swords 
riveted  the  chains  of  slavery  upon  wage-laborers  and  compelled 
them  to  submit  to  the  dictation  of  the  property  beasts. 

[Great  sensation.  The  crowd  pressed  nearer  the  speaker,  and 
on  the  outskirts  the  cry  went  up-  " That's  a  lie,  and  the  Grand 
Army  will  make  you  answer  for  it."  On  every  hand  the  workmen 
shouted :  "  It  is  the  truth,  and  if  you  harm  the  speaker  it  will  be 
you,  and  not  him,  that  will  dangle  on  a  rope  from  a  tree  limb."] 


68  A.   E.   PARSONS, 

After  order  was  restored  the  speaker  continued,  and  showed 
that  the  United  States  army  was  now  employed  in  Wyoming  Terri- 
tory against  strikers ;  that  the  military  was  employed  in  East 
Saginaw,  Mich. ;  in  Cleveland,  0. ;  in  Lemont,  111. — in  fact,  it  was 
employed  wherever  the  capitalists  called  for  it  to  subjugate  their 
wage-slaves,  who  were  in  revolt  against  oppression  and  slavery. 
The  speaker  said  that  economy,  industry,  and  sobriety  were  three 
virtues  which  capitalists  never  practiced ;  that  there  could  be  no 
overproduction  of  food  when  people  perished  from  hunger,  or  over- 
production of  houses  and  clothing  when  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  were  without  homes  and  clothed  in  rags.  Crime,  disease, 
ignorance,  insanity,  suicide,  and  all  the  ills  which  afflict  the  people 
result  from  enforced  artificial  poverty ;  and  this  poverty  was  created 
by  the  private  ownership  of  the  means  of  life — capital.  It  was 
such  a  condition  of  affairs  that  was  absolutely  certain  to  finally 
create  the  social  revolution.  The  workers  would  be  driven  by 
necessity  to  revolt  and  overthrow  the  power  of  those  who  were 
growing  rich  and  thriving  upon  their  misery.  Voting,  strikes,  arbi- 
tration, etc.,  were  of  no  use.  Those  who  deprived  the  workers  of 
the  wealth  they  created,  and  held  them  by  laws  and  the  bayonet  in 
subjection,  would  never  heed  the  logic  of  anything  but  force — 
physical  force — the  only  argument  that  tyrants  ever  could  or  would 
listen  to.  The  law — the  statute  law — the  Government,  was  the 
creation  of  the  privileged  class — a  class  that  lived  without  working 
and  became  rich  by  depriving  the  workers.  It  was  the  law  which 
had  made  the  land  private  property ;  had  done  the  same  thing  with 
machinery,  the  means  of  transportation  and  communication.  The 
law — the  statute  law — had  made  private  property  of  all  the  means 
of  life,  dooming  the  wage-workers  to  a  life  of  hereditary  servitude  to 
the  privileged  class.  Could  we,  who  suffer  from  it,  be  expected  to 
uphold  "law  and  order,"  the  instrumentality  by  which  we  were 
deprived  of  our  right  to  life,  to  liberty,  and  happiness  ?  Working- 
men  and  women  of  South  Bend,  prepare  for  the  inevitable.  Join 
your  comrades  of  Chicago  and  elsewhere.  All  over  the  world  a 
similar  condition  of  affairs  exists,  and  a  storm  is  brewing  which 
will  break  forth  ere  long  and  destroy  forever  the  right  of  man  to 
govern,  exploit,  and  enslave  his  fellow-man.  Agitate,  organize, 
revolt ! 

The  above  was,   in  substance,   the   speech  of  Mr.  Parsons* 


IN  SOUTH  BEND,  IND.  O» 

Throughout  he  was  cheered  enthusiastically  by  the  workingmen, 
but  from  the  labor  robbers  present  he  was  frequently  interrupted 
with  threats  and  sneers.  After  the  meeting  an  attempt  was  made 
upon  the  sidewalk,  while  going  to  his  lodging-house,  to  assault  the 
speaker,  but  it  was  prevented  by  the  workingmen  who  accompanied 
him  home. 


70  UNDER  THE   RED   FLAG. 


CHAPTER  II. 


UNDEB  THE  BED  FLAG. 

THE  CENTRAL  LABOR  UNION  OF  CHICAGO  CELEBRATES  LABOR  DAY — 
PRESENTATION  OF  THE  DISTINCTIVELY  LABOR  BANNER  TO  THE  METAL 
WORKERS'  UNION — ADDRESS  OF  ALBERT  B.  PARSONS — THE  EMBLEM 
OF  LIBERTY — THE  HOPE  OF  THE  OPPRESSED — EXPLOITATION  NOT 
CONFINED  TO  ANY  PARTICULAR  COUNTRY — GOVERNMENTS  MAIN- 
TAINED BY  FORCE — ANARCHY  WILL  SUPERSEDE  FORCE-PROPPED 
INSTITUTIONS — "AGITATE,  ORGANIZE,  BE  VOLT  !  " 

TT  may  not  be  generally  known  that  the  first  Monday  in  Septem- 
ber is  now  observed  as  a  labor  holiday  throughout  the  United 
States. 

The  Central  Labor  Union  of  New  York  in  1884  advised  the 
unions  and  organizations  of  the  country  to  set  aside  the  day  above 
mentioned  as  a  general  holiday  for  all  classes  of  laborers ;  since 
which  time  it  has  been  very  widely  observed. 

The  address  given  below  was  delivered  on  the  7th  of  September, 
1885  (Labor-Day),  at  a  demonstration  held  by  the  Central  Labor 
Union  of  Chicago,  on  which  occasion  a  beautiful  banner  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Metal-Workers'  Union.  Albert  Parsons  was  invited  to 
make  the  presentation  speech.  His  address  on  this  occasion  was 
eloquent  a»d  of  some  length,  but  only  a  portion  of  it  has  been  pre- 
served. The  following  is  quoted  from  a  daily  paper  of  the  8th  of 
September : 

"  'We  meet  to-day  beneath  the  red  flag — that  flag  which  sym- 
bolizes an  equality  of  rights  and  duties,  the  solidarity  of  all  human 
interests ;  that  flag  which  has  for  more  than  a  century  past  been 


UNDER  THE   RED   FLAG.  71 

the  emblem  of  "Liberty,  Fraternity,  Equality."  Since  the  bloody 
struggle  with  oppression  which  began  in  France  in  1788,  and 
through  the  varying  fortunes  which  have  attended  its  followers  in 
their  conflicts  with  the  despots  of  continental  Europe,  England, 
and  America,  it  has  been  the  oriflamme  of  liberty,  the  sign  of 
labor's  emancipation  from  its  slavery.' 

"Here  the  new  flag  was  unfurled  and  grandly  waved  from  the 
improvised  rostrum  of  salt-barrels.  Then  the  speaker  continued : 

"  'Again  and  again  has  this  symbol  been  baptized  in  the  blood 
of  the  people,  struggling  with  their  rulers,  until  its  crimson  folds, 
dripping  with  the  tears  and  blood  of  freedom's  martyrs,  appeal  in 
mute  but  overwhelming  power  to  the  lovers  of  liberty  everywhere, 
to  pledge  again  undying  devotion  to  liberty,  fraternity,  equality. 
Here,  as  everywhere,  labor  creates  all  wealth.  Here,  as  every- 
where labor  is  degraded  by  poverty  and  held  in  heriditary  servi- 
tude to  that  wealth  which  it  creates.  Our  American  rulers  differ 
not  one  whit  from  the  despots  of  all  other  lands.  They  all  fatten 
upon  the  miseries  of  the  people ;  they  all  live  by  despoiling  the 
laborer.  The  boundary  lines,  flags,  customs,  and  languages  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth  may  differ,  but  the  poverty,  misery,  and  degra- 
dation of  the  useful  class— the  producers  of  the  world's  wealth — 
proceed  from  one  and  the  same  cause — the  subjection,  the  enslave- 
ment of  the  producers.  Through  force  and  fraud  the  cunning, 
cruel,  and  unprincipled  few  became  possessed  of  what  by  natural 
right  is  the  common  heritage  of  all.  Government,  with  its  consti- 
tution and  man-made  laws,  and  all  the  machinery  to  sustain  and 
enforce  it,  became  a  necessity  for  the  protection  of  the  usurpers. 
Anarchy,  the  natural  law,  was  overthrown  and  this  fair  earth  was 
converted  into  a  slave-pen — all  for  the  frivolities,  pastime,  and  licen- 
tiousness of  the  privileged  class." 

"In  a  similar  vein  the  better  classes,'  ingeniously  invented  for 
popular  discussion  by  the  Union  League  Club,  were  attended  to, 
and  then  the  speaker  wound  up  by  saying: 

"  'But  the  powerful,  the  privileged,  are  not  in  the  least  disturbed 
by  argument,  protest,  or  petition.  They  have  but  one  answer  to 
all  appeals — force.  By  force  and  fraud  they  gained  their  power ; 
by  force  and  fraud  they  maintain  it.  Morality,  pity,  reason  are 
all  alike  lost  upon  those  who  rob  and  enslave  their  fellow-beings. 
They  answer  argument  with  misrepresentation;  they  practice 


72  UNDER   THE    RED   FLAG. 

charity  but  deny  justice,  and  answer  demands  for  liberty  with 
starvation,  prisons,  and  steel.  What  shall  be  done  with  those  social 
monsters,  these  property  beasts?  We  must  destroy  them  or  be 
destroyed.  By  what  ?  Anarchy,  self-government,  the  right  to  work 
and  live,  the  right  voluntarily  to  associate  and  co-operate,  the 
equal  right  of  all  to  the  use  of  all.  The  usurpation  of  man  by  man 
must  cease ;  to  this  we  are  pledged.  We  are  revolutionists.  We 
fight  for  the  destruction  of  the  system  of  wage-slavery.  To  the 
despised,  disinherited,  and  destitute  of  the  earth  Anarchy  offers 
love,  peace,  and  plenty.  Statute  laws,  constitutions,  and  Govern- 
ments are  at  war  with  nature  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  man. 
The  claim  of  capital  to  profit,  interest,  or  rent  is  a  robber  claim, 
enforced  by  piratical  methods.  Let  robbers  and  pirates  meet  the 
fate  they  deserve.  Against  them  there  is  but  one  resource— force. 
Agitate,  organize,  revolt !  Proletarians  of  the  world,  unite  !  We 
have  nothing  to  lose  but  our  chains — we  have  a  world  to  win.  Lead 
on  the  red  flag  to  liberty  or  death !" ' 

"After  the  highly  dramatic  peroration  of  Mr.  Parsons  a  speech 
in  German  was  delivered  by  August  Spies,  of  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung, 
and  then  the  Socialists'  male  chorus  sang  'The  Eed  Banner.'  The 
procession  formed  in  three  divisions  under  Oscar  Neebe  as  Chief 
Marshal,  and  A.  E.  Parsons  and  Gus  Belz  as  aids.  The  line  of 
march  was  by  way  of  Madison,  Clark,  and  Division  streets  to 
Ogden's  grove,  where  the  day  was  spent  in  the  usual  picnic  recrea- 
tions and  impromptu  remarks  by  the  speakers  of  the  forenoon, 
supplemented  by  Mrs.  Parsons  in  the  afternoon." 


OBSERVING   THANKSGIVING  DAY.  73 


CHAPTER  III. 


OBSEEVING  THANKSGIVING  DAY,  1885. 

CHICAGO  WORKINGMEN  HOLD  A  LARGE  INDIGNATION  MEETING  IN  MAR- 
KET SQUARE — VIGOROUS  EESOLUTIONS  OF  PROTEST  UNANIMOUSLY 
ADOPTED— MR.  PARSONS'  ADDRESS — WHY  SHOULD  THE  WAGE- 
SLAVES  GIVE  THANKS?  AND  To  WHOM:  GOD  OR  MASTER? — 
PALACES  AND  HOVELS — GOVERNMENT  PROTECTS  THE  EIGHT  OF  THE 
"Boss"  TO  BUY  CHEAP  LABOR — THE  FLAG  OF  AUTHORITY  vs.  THE 
FLAG  OF  LIBERTY — THANKFUL  FOR  THE  APPROACHING  DAWN. 

Taken  from  the  "Alarm"  of  November  88,  1886. 

day  set  apart  by  the  well-fed,  well-clothed,  well-housed, 
and  well-to-do  classes  to  return  thanks  for  the  success  that 
crowned  their  efforts  to  exploit  the  working  class  during  the 
past  year  was  Thursday,  November  26.  It  was  a  dreary,  cold,  wet, 
and  uncomfortable  day  for  the  half-fed,  scantily-clothed,  poorly- 
housed,  and  poverty-stricken  working  class,  who  had  been  the  vic- 
tims of  the  God-and-morality  "better  classes"  the  past  year. 

The  working  people  of  Chicago  felt  the  sting  of  the  insult  and 
the  hollow  mockery  conveyed  in  the  chief  ruler's  proclamation  com- 
manding the  people  to  "return  thanks  "  for  the  miserable  existence 
they  were  compelled  to  endure.  The  Internationalists  therefore 
arranged  for  an  indignation  meeting  of  the  working  people,  to 
whom  was  adddressed  the  following  announcement : 

Grand  Thanksgiving  services  of  the  Chicago  workingmen,  tramps,  and  all 
others  who  are  despoiled  and  disfranchised,  on  Market  square  (Randolph  and 
Market  streets),  Thanksgiving  day,  Thursday,  November  26,  1885,  at  2:30 
o'clock  p.  m.  Good  "preachers"  of  the  gospel  of  humanity  will  officiate. 
Everyone  is  invited.  Learn  how  turkeys  and  other  nice  things  may  be  pro- 
cured. The  Committee  of  the  Grateful. 


74  OBSERVING   THANKSGIVING  DAY. 

At  the  hour  named  several  hundred  men  and  women  had  as- 
sembled at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  Market  streets,  where  a 
large  red  flag  waved  from  the  top  of  a  pile  of  salt-barrels  which  cov- 
ered the  sidewalk.  By  the  time  the  meeting  was  called  to  order 
some  2,000  persons  stood  in  the  mud  and  slush,  and  cold,  piercing 
wind,  which  was  the  ideal  of  a  raw,  chilly  Novemberday. 

William  Holmes  read  the  following  resolutions,  which  were 
unanimously  adopted : 

Whereas,  The  President  of  the  United  States  has  issued  his  annual  proc- 
lamation, calling  upon  the  people  as  a  whole  to  give  thanks  for  prosperity, 
of  which  but  few  of  them  have  a  share,  and  reiterating  the  lies  so  often  repeated 
about  the  well-being  of  the  nation  ;  and 

Whereas,  The  existence  of  a  vast  army  of  homeless  wanderers,  scarcity  of 
employment,  business  depression,  and  the  poverty  and  wretchedness  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  people  give  the  lie  to  the  statement  that  abundant  prosperity 
prevails.  No  nation  can  be  prosperous  and  contended  where,  in  the  banquet 
of  life,  a  small  number  monopolize  the  general  product,  while  the  many  are 
denied  a  place  at  nature's  table  ;  therefore 

Resolved,  By  this  mass-meeting  of  all  classes  of  citizens,  that  we  vote  our 
vigorous  protest  against  the  above-named*  proclamation  at  this  time  ;  that  it 
is  a  lie — a  stupid,  hollow  mockery — a  sop  thrown  out  by  the  ruling  classes  to 
tickle  the  palates  of  their  ignorant  dupes  and  slaves  that  they  may  with  better 
security  continue  to  rob  them.  We  reiterate  the  statement  thit  only  when 
the  people  shall  have  come  to  their  own — whe»  land  and  the  natural  resources 
of  the  earth  shall  have  become  free  ;  when  liberty  shall  have  become  a  practi- 
cal reality,  and  when  the  beast  of  private  property  in  the  means  of  life  shall 
have  ceased  to  sap  the  energies  of  the  people  ;  when  poverty  and  the  fear 
of  want  shall  have  been  abolished  from  the  face  of  the  earth — then,  and  not 
until  then,  shall  we  have  cause,  as  a  people,  to  give  thanks  for  our  abundant 
prosperity. 

A.  E.  Parsons  mounted  a  pile  of  the  salt-barrels,  and,  using 
them  as  a  stand,  was  introduced  as  the  first  speaker.  Eeferring  to 
the  proclamation  of  the  President  calling  upon  the  people  to  return 
thanks,  Mr.  Parsons  asked  to  whom  should  the  wage-workers  offer 
thanks,  and  for  what?  Were  they  to  be  thankful  for  the  hard 
times  which  make  the  life  of  the  wage-worker  an  intense  struggle 
for  bread,  and  often  times  unable  to  procure  even  that ;  were  they 
to  be  thankful  for  pauper  wages  and  the  miseries  which  follow  a 
life  of  drudgery  and  poverty,  and  resign  themselves  and  con- 
tentedly accept  the  station  of  a  menial  as  an  act  of  divine  prov- 
idence? No,  perish  the  thought.  Shall  the  plundered  workers 
return  thanks  to  their  despoilers,  who  give  charity  to  hide  their 


OBSERVING   THANKSGIVING  DAY.  75 

blushes  when  they  look  into  the  faces  of  their  victims  ?  Shall  the 
disinherited,  who  have  by  legal  enactments  been  debarred  their 
natural  right  to  an  equal  and  free  use  of  all  natural  and  social 
forces,  return  thanks  for  the  soup-houses,  poor-houses,  wood-yards, 
and  other  charitable  institutions  ?  Shall  the  workers  give  thanks- 
because  they  receive  two  hours'  pay  for  ten  hours'  work  ?  Are  they 
to  be  thankful  for  the  compulsory  idleness  of  over  2,000,000  of 
their  fellow- workmen  ?  Thankful  for  an  employer,  a  "boss"  whose 
"business"  it  is  to  take  something  for  nothing,  and  force  them  to 
accept  the  terms  or  starve !  Thankful  for  a  Eepublican  form  of 
Government  which  guarantees  free  speech,  free  ballot,  free  press, 
and  free  action  to  the  propertied  class;  a  Government  with  its 
declaration  of  independence,  constitution,  and  stars-and-stripes  to 
defend  and  protect  the  robbers  of  labor,  while  it  imprisons,  shoots, 
and  hangs  the  disloyal,  rebellious  wage-slaves?  The  First  regi- 
ment, Illinois  State  Guards,  is  at  this  moment  practicing  the 
evolutions  of  the  "street  riot  drill"  in  another  part  of  the  city  for 
the  purpose  of  murdering  in  an  expeditious  and  scientific  manner 
the  men  and  women  whom  the  present  system  has  turned  adrift 
to  starve.  Shall  the  workers  be  thankful  for  that  ?  Shall  they  be 
thankful  that  capitalists  the  past  year  have  employed  the  Pinker- 
ton  thugs,  the  police,  and  military  to  subjugate  the  workers  in 
revolt  against  starvation  wages.  Shall  thanks  be  returned  that  the 
Almighty  God  blesses  the  wrong-doer  with  riches,  "making  paradise 
for  them  out  of  the  hells  of  the  poor  ?  Shall  we  be  thankful  for 
privation,  for  slavery,  for  poverty  ?  No.  Curses,  bitter  and  deep 
are  hereby  and  now  returned  to  the  author  of  our  woes,  be  that 
God  or  man ! 

Eeferring  to  Chicago,  the  speaker  drew  attention  to  the  fact 
that  last  winter  over  30,000  persons  were  kept  from  starvation  by 
the  hand  of  charity.  With  elevators  bursting  with  food,  ware- 
houses groaning  with  clothing,  and  houses  vacant  everywhere,  they 
who  produced  by  their  labor  these  things  were  made  to  feel  the 
pangs  of  hunger  and  the  biting  frosts  of  winter.  Beneath  the 
shadow  of  palaces  which  they  had  reared  the  workers  of  Chicago, 
as  elsewhere,  were  huddled  together  in  hovels  and  huts  unfit  for 
human  habitation.  The  wealth  produced  by  the  wage-workers  of 
Chicago  the  past  year  was  sufficient  to  furnish  them  with  every 
comfort — yea,  even  luxury. 


76  OBSERVING   THANKSGIVING  DAY. 

The  capitalists  and  their  mouthpieces,  the  press,  pulpit,  and 
politicians,  declare  that  the  wage  class  receive  in  wages  all  that 
they  earn.  By  this  they  mean  that  we  earn  only  so  much  as  they 
compel  us  to  accept.  The  statistics  as  given  in  the  capitalistic 
press,  showing  the  productive  capacity  of  labor  in  Chicago  the  past 
year,  are  the  answer  to  the  question  why  the  workers  are  poor. 
Let  the  wage- workers  ponder  them  well  and  ascertain  where  the 
ten  and  twelve  hours'  work  for  which  they  receive  no  pay  goes  to. 

The  statistics,  showing  the  profit  on  labor  in  Chicago  the  past 
year,  are  as  follow : 

Number  of  manufacturing  establishments . . . ; 2,282 

Capital  invested ... $  87,392,709 

Value  of  raw  material. . . , $152,628,378 

Value  of  manufactured  product $292,246,912 

Number  of  employes 105,725 

Total  wages  paid $  48,382,912 

Now  deduct  the  cost  of  raw  material  and  it  shows  that  labor 

earned $139,287,465 

Total  wages  paid $  48,382,912 

$  90,904,o53 

Or  over  $857  profit  on  each  laborer.  While  each  wage-worker 
earned  over  $1,314,  they  received  on  an  average  $457  each,  or  less 
than  one  third  of  what  they  produced.  Each  manufacturing 
establishment  averaged  a  profit  of  about  $40,000.  Some  bank- 
rupted, it  is  true;  but  others,  like  Phil  Armour,  made  over 
$3,500,000 ! 

Manufacturers  divide  this  plunder  with  landlords,  usurers,  in- 
surance, the  Government,  lawyers,  and  other  leeches  and  parasites. 

Phil  Armour  reduced  his  10,000  laborers  25  cents  per  day,  which 
on  10,000  amounts  to  $2,500  per  day,  $15,000  per  week,  $45,000  per 
month,  and  $540,000  per  year.  Kesult,  a  twelve-story  palace  worth 
$1,000,000  in  two  years. 

Potter  Palmer  builds  a  $600,000  palace.  There  are  ten  mill, 
ionaire  club-houses  in  this  city  which  are  used  for  conspiracy 
against  the  liberties  of  the  people.  There  are  miles  and  miles  of 
fashionable  avenues  lined  from  end  to  end  with  palaces  wherein  the 
enslavers  and  robbers  of  labor  licentiously  and  riotously  carouse 
upon  the  wealth  filched  from  the  workers. 

Shall  we  be  thankful  for  this  infamy,  crime,  and  murder  of  the 


OBSERVING   THANKSGIVING  DAY.  77 

innocents  ?  But  the"stars-and-stripes"  overshadows  and  smiles  upon 
and  protects  it  all.  Behold  the  American  army,  with  gleaming 
bayonets,  in  long  serried  line,  the  American  flag  at  its  head  leading 
the  column,  marching  under  orders  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States  to  protect — what  ?*  To  protect  the  rights  and  liberties  and 
welfare  of  the  people  ?  No.  To  protect  the  propertied  class  in  their 
constitutional  right  to  buy  cheap  labor — the  Chinese  coolie  slave — • 
and  thus  reduce  the  American  laborer  to  the  coolie  standard  of 
living.  The  flag  of  America  has  thus  become  the  ensign  of  privi- 
lege and  the  guardian  of  property,  the  defender  of  monopoly.  Wage- 
slaves  of  Chicago,  turn  your  eyes  from  that  ensign  of  property  and 
fix  them  upon  the  emblem  of  liberty,  fraternity,  equality — the  red 
flag — that  flag  which  now  and  ever  has  waved,  and  ever  will  remain 
the  oriflamme  of  liberty,  denoting  emancipated  labor,  the  redemp- 
tion of  humanity,  and  the  equality  of  rights  of  all. 

Let  us  be  thankful,  then,  that  there  is  a  large  and  increasing 
number  of  workingmen  and  women  who  have  acquired  a  knowledge 
of  their  rights  and  dare  to  defend  them.  Let  us  be  thankful  for  the 
dawn  which  is  even  now  breaking,  which  is  to  usher  in  the  new  era  ; 
thankful  for  the  near  approach  of  that  period  in  human  affairs 
when  man  will  no  longer  govern  or  exploit  his  fellow-man :  the  time 
when  the  earth  and  all  it  contains  will  be  held  for  the  free  use  of 
all  nature's  children. 

Let  us  prepare  for  the  recovery  of  our  stolen  right  to  our  in- 
heritance of  this  fair  earth,  and  let  us  express  the  devout  and  earn- 
est hope  that  ere  many  Thanksgiving  days  come  round  the  workers 
of  the  world  may,  by  their  devotion  to  liberty  and  the  best  interests 
of  man,  abolish  and  exterminate  the  whole  brood  of  profit-mongers, 
rent-takers,  and  usury-gatherers,  and  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  erect 
the  new  order,  wherein  all  will  associate  and  co-operate  for  the 
purpose  of  producing  and  consuming  freely,  without  let  or  hin- 
drance. 


*  This  was  being  done  at  that  time  in  the  Territories. 


78  THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE. 

THE  STRIKE  OF  THE  QUARRYMEN  IN  LEMONT,  LOCKPORT,  AND  JOLIET — 
THE  SHERIFF  INVOKES  THE  AID  OF  THE  MILITIA — Boss  SINGER 
THROWS  A  MAN  THROUGH  THE  POSTOFFICE  WINDOW — THE  SHERIFF 
BEADS  THE  RIOT  ACT — INDIGNATION  OF  THE  PEOPLE — THE  MILITIA 
ENTERS  LEMONT — TERRORIZING  THE  INHABITANTS — THE  MASSACRE 
— "TERMAGANTS" — ONE  LAW  FOR  THE  RICH,  ANOTHER  FOR  THE 
POOR — MILITIAMEN  MARCH  AROUND  IN  PLATOONS  TO  PREVENT 
BEING  MOBBED — CONDITIONS  OF  THE  QUARRYMEN — LESSONS  OF  THE 
STRIKE. 

Taken  from  "The  Alarm"  of  May  16,  1885. 

STRIKE  of  considerable  proportions  began  among  the  stone- 
quarry  men  of  Lemont,  Lockport,  and  Joliet  about  four 
weeks  ago.  The  demand  was  made  for  a  uniform  scale  of 
wages  and  the  restoration  of  last  year's  rates.  There  were  about 
3,000  men  engaged  in  the  movement,  including  the  quarries  at  the 
towns  mentioned  above.  The  usual  tactics  of  the  propertied  class 
were  resorted  to  to  defeat  the  strikers.  They  endeavored  to  fill  the 
quarries  with  men  who  have  for  a  long  time  been  kept  in  com- 
pulsory idleness,  and  whose  necessities  were  consequently  very  great 
and  pressing.  As  is  the  usual  custom  with  unionists  and  strikers 
generally,  the  men  sought  to  prevent  the  employment  of  these  sub- 
stitutes by  any  means  at  their  disposal.  The  capitalists,  as  usual 
in  such  conflicts  with  their  employes,  fell  back  upon  the  law  and 
called  upon  the  Sheriff  to  protect  them  in  their  legal  right  to  em- 
ploy or  discharge  whomsoever  they  please.  The  Sheriff  replied 
that,  owing  to  the  large  body  of  men  and  their  determination  to  fix 


THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE.  79 

the  price  of  their  own  labor,  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to 
obtain  the  assistance  of  the  military  to  protect  the  legal  rights  of 
the  employers.  This  latter  statement  suited  the  quarry-owners 
exactly,  and  the  Sheriff  accordingly  made  a  statement  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State,  who  is  also  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  militia, 
that  he  was  unable  to  maintain  order  and  enforce  the  law,  and 
therefore  required  the  presence  of  the  military  to  assist  him.  The 
Governor,  acting  in  accordance  with  the  constitution  and  the 
statute  law,  sent  four  companies,  numbering  about  230  men,  armed 
with  breech-loading  rifles,  revolvers,  and  a  gatling  gun  to  maintain 
"law  and  order"  around  the  stone  quarries.  It  will  be  seen  that 
in  this  whole  procedure  the  "authorities"  and  the  quarry-owners 
acted  in  strict  accordance  with  the  statute  law  and  the  consti- 
tution throughout,  and  the  account  of  their  action  which  follows 
will  go  far  toward  aiding  working  people  to  understand  what  the 
preservation  of  so-called  "law  and  order"  means. 

Monday,  May  4,  was  the  day  set  for  the  entrance  of  the  mili- 
tary into  the  heretofore  hum-drum  village  of  Lemont.  All  was  ex- 
citement over  the  event,  and  the  1,500  quarrymen  who  constituted 
the  inhabitants  of  that  quiet  little  town  were  loud  in  their  expres- 
sions of  indignation  over  the  contemplated  invasion. 

The  people  were  strolling  around  the  streets  on  Monday  morn- 
ing, about  7  : 30  o'clock,  when  H.  M.  Singer,  who  has  signalized  him- 
self by  his  brutality  and  tyranny  over  the  people,  rode  up  in  his 
buggy,  got  out,  and  entered  the  postoffice.  At  the  same  time  an- 
other person  went  into  the  office  to  get  or  inquire  for  his  mail, 
when  the  despot  Singer  turned  around,  grasped  the  man,  and 
dashed  him  through  the  window  onto  the  sidewalk.  This  occurrence 
naturally  brought  together  a  large  crowd  of  people,  who  were  in- 
dignant at  the  outrage.  Thereupon  the  Sheriff  of  Cook  county 
sprang  up  on  a  dry-goods  box  and  read  the  riot  act  to  the  people, 
commanding  them  to  disperse  to  their  homes,  and  at  the  conclusion 
of  which  he  said :  "Now,  men,  I  warn  you,  that  if  you  do  not  go  to 
work  at  once  for  $1.50  a  day  the  military  will  be  sent  here  to 
compel  you  to  do  it." 

The  people  were  made  all  the  more  excited  and  indignant  at 
this  exhibition  of  "authority,"  and  many  were  the  expressions  to  be 
heard  on  every  hand  of  condemnation  against  the  Sheriff  and 
Singer.  The  people  said  to  one  another:  "Are  we  in  this  manner 


80  THE   LEMOXT  MASSACRE. 

to  be  driven  to  our  work  like  galley-slaves  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet?"  The  Sheriff  was  under  the  constant  direction  of  H.  M. 
Singer,  who  acted  as  the  representative  of  the  Quarry-Owners* 
Association. 

It  was  intended  that  the  above  act  should  be  the  inauguration 
of  hostilities  by  the  authorities,  for  H.  M.  Singer,  accompanied  by 
the  Sheriff,  telegraphed  the  order  for  the  militia  to  advance  toward 
the  town.  The  Chicago  &  Alton  railroad,  with  that  alacrity  be- 
coming in  a  fellow-monopolist  and  labor  exploiter,  quickly  placed 
a  train  at  the  disposal  of  the  labor  robbers,  and  the  troops  were 
brought  up  and  landed  at  a  point  about  one  and  half  miles  south 
of  the  town  of  Lemont,  just  outside  of  the  county  line  of  Cook 
county.  By  10  o'clock  a.  m.  their  bristling  bayonets  were  seen 
flashing  in  the  sunlight  as  they  advanced  upon  the  town  by  the 
main  thoroughfare  leading  in  that  direction. 

The  Town  Marshal  and  Supervisor,  whose  sympathies  were  out- 
spoken with  the  strikers,  acting  on  the  part  of  their  constituencies, 
advanced  down  the  road,  intercepted  the  militia,  and  ordered  them 
not  to  enter  the  town.  Col.  Bennett,  the  commanding  officer, 
ordered  them  to  get  out  of  the  way  or  he  would  place  them  under 
arrest. 

The  troops  continued  to  advance  until  they  reached  the  center 
of  the  town,  which  is  located  mainly  upon  a  long  street  running 
parallel  with  the  canal,  the  river,  and  the  quarries  at  that  point. 
Here  the  people— men,  woman,  and  children — of  the  whole  village 
were  assembled  upon  the  sidewalks.  The  excitement  ran  high, 
and  some  used  some  very  uncomplimentary  words  toward  the 
quarry- owners  and  authorities  who  had  brought  these  bandits  of 
"law  and  order"  among  them.  It  is  said  that  a  few  stones  were 
thrown  at  the  soldiers  and  that  a  pistol-shot  was  fired  by  some 
citizen ;  but  the  soldiery  opened  fire  upon  the  people  and  killed  two 
men  upon  the  spot,  and  bayoneted  and  sabered  two  others,  who 
have  died  from  their  wounds  since.  Several  other  men  and  a 
number  of  women  were  prodded  with  bayonets  and  clubbed  with 
the  butts  of  muskets. 

The  people  were  terrified.  They  were  wholly  unarmed  and 
absolutely  defenseless.  Confronted  by  these  armed  hirelings  of 
capital,  they  fled  for  their  lives  to  shelter.  The  shrieks  of  wounded 
and  dying  men  and  woman  filled  the  air;  the  warm  blood  of  the 


THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE.  81 

people  bathed  the  flagstones  of  the  sidewalks.  The  loss  was  entirely 
on  the  side  of  labor,  which  was,  after  having  been  robbed,  now 
being  murdered.  The  army  of  capitalism  moved  forward  through 
the  village,  and,  halting  at  a  commanding  hill  which  overlooked 
the  town  and  quarries,  these  capitalistic  maurauders  of  the  people 
struck  camp,  where  they  have  remained  since  and  kept  the  vil- 
lagers under  the  shadows  of  their  guns. 

Andrew  Stulata,  the  top  of  whose  head  was  blown  off  by  a  shot 
from  the  troops,  was  standing  just  on  the  inward  edge  of  the  side- 
walk on  a  vacant  lot  with  both  hands  stretched  out  in  the  act  of 
holding  the  little  group  of  children  back  from  the  street,  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  of  whom  had  assembled  there  to  witness  the  sight  of 
the  troops.  His  blood  and  brains  were  scattered  over  the  little 
ones ;  he  fell  and  was  afterward  carried  to  his  home  by  weeping 
friends.  Several  houses  along  the  street  were  fired  into.  One  house, 
occupied  by  a  quarry  laborer's  family,  received  two  rifle-balls.  The 
lady,  a  9-year-old  girl,  and  a  2-year-old  child  were  at  the  windows 
viewing  the  troops  when  a  ball  came  crashing  through  the  wall 
within  a  few  inches  of  their  heads,  and,  striking  the  wall  opposite 
inside,  fell  battered  upon  the  floor. 

The  legal  bandits  chased  the  people  into  their  houses,  and  with 
the  butt  of  bayonets  drove  the  women  up-stairs.  One  woman  was 
being  clubbed  and  chased  up  the  street,  when  she  turned  and  with 
the  fury  of  desperation  sought  to  wrest  the  gun  from  her  assailant. 
Jac  Kujawa  ran  to  her  rescue,  and,  separating  them,  he  was  taking 
the  woman  home,  when  about  thirty  paces  away  he  was  shot 
through  the  head  and  fell  dead  in  his  tracks,  where  he  was  left  to 
welter  in  his  gore  for  two  hours  afterward.  Father  James  Hogan, 
the  Irish  Catholic  priest  at  Lemont,  who  was  standing  near  by  and 
witnessed  the  dastardly  deed,  raised  his  clenched  hands  and  shaking 
them  at  the  bandits  said  :  "You  cold-blooded  murderers,  lay  down 
your  arms.  You  have  murdered  the  man."  The  militiamen  re- 
plied :  "IE  you  don't  get  inside  the  house  we'll  drop  you  too."  The 
priest  paid  no  attention,  but  went  to  the  dying  man  and  on  bended 
knees  administered  the  death  sacrament. 

Little  Mary,  the  bright  9-year  old  sister  of  the  young  man  An- 
drew Stulata,  who  was  murdered  by  the  bandits  of  "law  and  order," 
upon  seeing  our  reporter,  who  visited  the  remains  in  the  house  of 
his  parents,  ran  up  to  him  and  said,  while  the  tears  rolled  down  her 


82  THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE. 

face :  "Oh,  sir,  they  killed  my  poor,  poor  brother.  He  did  no  harm 
to  any  one.  He  was  so  kind  and  good  ;  and  oh,  sir,  those  bad  men 
came  to  his  corpse  and  laughed  at  him  and  us ;  oh,  sir,  what  shall 
wedo?" 

Both  of  these  men  were  highly  respected  and  beloved  by  the 
entire  village  of  Lemont. 

The  bandits  of  "law  and  order "  have  rested  on  their  laurels, 
varying  the  pastimes  of  their  camp  life  with  catching  and  milking 
the  cows  of  the  dairymen,  who  have  pastured  their  cattle  there- 
abouts, and  an  occasional  sally  into  the  town  with  a  platoon  of 
soldiers  to  the  depot  when  trains  arrive  and  depart. 
•##  ##*#***## 

The  women  of  Lemont,  having  committed  the  crime  of  living 
in  poor  tenements  and  wearing  the  common  garments  which  the  in- 
dustry of  their  labor  provides  them  with,  are  spoken  of  in  the  cap- 
italistic press  reports  as  "termagants,"  "viragos,"  etc.  These  women, 
the  wives  and  daughters  of  workingmen,  were  bayoneted  by  the 
soldiers  of  capitalism,  their  only  crime  being  they  do  not  wear  seal- 
skin dolmans  and  belong  to  the  "better  classes." 

In  a  conversation  with  Coroner  Hertz  about  the  refusal  of  Col. 
Bennett,  commanding  the  State  bandits  at  Lemont,  to  appear  and 
testify  before  the  Coroner's  inquest,  he  said :  "Yes,  sir,  it  has  come 
to  this  pass,  and  it  is  true  that  there  is  now  no  law  for  the  poor.  If 
you  have  money,  if  you  are  rich,  it  is  all  right  with  you  then." 
The  Coroner  declared  that  according  to  the  constitution  the  "mili- 
tary was  held  in  subjection  to  the  civil  authorities ;"  "but,"  said  he, 
"there  is  no  defense  for  the  poor;  the  law  protects  the  rich  only." 
The  day  following  the  slaughter  at  Lemont  our  reporter  was 
again  upon  the  scene  and  gathered  the  following  items : 

On  arriving  from  Chicago  at  the  depot  in  Lemont,  a  platoon 
of  iwelve  militia  men  were  present  and  drawn  up  in  line  as  an 
escort  to  one  of  their  number  who  desired  to  take  the  train  and 
return  home.  Upon  inquiry  it  was  ascertained  that  these  bandits 
of  law  and  order  are  compelled  to  come  in  platoons  to  the  train  on 
every  such  occasion  in  order  to  prevent  the  people  from  mobbing 
them. 

Leaving  the  depot  and  stopping  at  the  restaurant  on  the  cor- 
ner, we  met  several  reporters  of  the  Chicago  capitalistic  press,  who 
were  being  roundly  abused  by  some  of  the  Lemont  citizens,  both 


THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE.  83 

workers  and  business  men,  for  the  false  and  slanderous  reports 
sent  out  daily  from  Lemont.  The  reporters  answered  that  they 
were  not  to  blame,  as  they  took  the  statements  of  the  "authorities" 
each  day.  It  was  made  perfectly  plain,  however,  that  the  reporters 
of  the  capitalistic  papers  are  more  than  anxious  to  accept  the  state- 
ments of  the  "authorities  "  and  reject  or  misrepresent  those  of  the 
people  who  are  being  murdered,  insulted,  and  lied  about  by  the  so- 
called  authorities  now  dominating  the  people  of  Lemont. 

A  reporter  told  me  that  the  following  note  had  been  handed  to 
the  wife  of  a  man  who  wanted  to  go  to  work  at  Singer  &  Talcott's 
quarry : 

Keep  Pat  at  home  to-morrow,  or  your  house  will  be  burned  at  night. 

Of  course,  this  note  is  a  forgery.  Everybody  in  Lemont  says 
it  is  a  trick  of  the  quarry-owners  to  make  out  some  reason  for 
keeping  the  military  in  the  town.  The  people  of  Lemont  know  that 
it  was  written  or  instigated  by  some  one  of  the  many  detectives 
which  Despot  Singer  and  his  gang  of  robbers  have  employed  to 
oppress  and  spy  among  their  slaves. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  business  men  held  the  day  before  it  was 
proposed  to  appoint  a  committee  of  the  strikers  to  wait  upon  the 
bosses  and  try  to  bring  about  a  settlement  of  the  difficulty.  Mr. 
Murphy,  who  is  one  of  the  largest  dry-goods  and  grocery  mer- 
chants in  the  town,  said  it  would  not  do  to  appoint  such  a  com- 
mittee, as  the  men  who  acted  on  it  would  be  discharged  and  lose 
their  bread  for  acting  in  such  a  manner,  and  gave  instances  where 
men  had  been  discharged  before  by  Singer  and  other  bosses  for 
serving  on  similar  committees. 

Polus,  the  man  who  received  a  bayonet-thrust  which  entered 
the  breast  to  the  backbone,  and  a  saber-wound  in  his  side,  died  of 
his  wounds  yesterday.  He  was  48  years  old  and  leaves  a  wife  and 
six  children.  His  family  are  utterly  destitute,  and  the  neighbors 
have  to  supply  them  with  food  to  keep  them  from  starving.  A 
subscription  list  was  circulated  yesterday  among  the  people  to  bury 
the  murdered  man. 

A  stone-quarry  man  is  paid  $1.50  per  day.  He  gets  work  about 
six  months  in  the  year.  This  makes  an  average  of  about  62£  cents 
per  day.  This  is  the  sum  upon  which  the  quarry  bosses  are  compel- 
ling a  man  to  live  and  support  a  family  of  eight  persons,  and  when 


84  THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE. 

the  worker  refuses  to  submit  to  it  they  are  put  to  death  by  sword, 
bayonet,  and  bullet  in  the  hands  of  the  "authorities." 

About  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  noon  train  from  Chicago  a 
crowd  of  200  or  300  persons  assembled  at  the  depot,  as  they  have 
been  doing  since  the  trouble  with  the  authorities  began.  A  squad 
of  fourteen  soldiers  also  came  to  the  depot  with  fixed  bayonets, 
loaded  rifles,  and  belts  containing  forty  rounds  of  cartridges,  and 
a  Colt's  navy  six-shooter  suspended  to  a  belt  around  their  waists. 
"When  the  train  left  the  depot  the  officer  gave  the  command  to 
"about  face  and  forward,"  and  they  marched  back  to  their  camp. 
Not  a  word  was  spoken  by  any  one  in  the  sullen  crowd,  but  many 
men  gritted  their  teeth  and  looked  daggers  at  the  ruthless  murder- 
ers who  are  making  this  display  of  "authority"  in  their  midst.  The 
camp  is  about  a  mile  from  the  depot  on  a  hill  overlooking  the  prin- 
cipal quarries.  No  approach  is  allowed  to  the  camp,  which  has  a 
line  of  guards  around  it.  There  is  one  gatling  gun  and  about  230 
soldiers  in  the  encampment.  Their  marches  to  and  from  the  depot 
and  around  the  town  are  a  source  of  great  irritation  to  the  people, 
who  are  unarmed  and  powerless  to  protect  themselves.  As  the 
train  pulled  out  and  the  military  marched  away  from  the  depot  the 
station  agent,  Tom  Huston,  stood  before  the  crowds  and  began  to 
drive  them  off  the  platform  of  the  depot,  saying:  "Get  away  from 
here.  Stand  aside.  I  have  had  to  take  unnecesssary  trouble.  It 
is  an  imposition  on  me  and  the  company  for  you  to  stand  around 
here.  I  am  dependent  on  my  wages  for  my  living  the  same  as  you 
are,  and  the  company  holds  me  responsible  for  not  ordering  you 
away.  I  have  always  tried  to  treat  you  all  well.  You  are  here  at 
every  train.  You  are  in  the  way.  Move  on ;  move  on.  You  block 
up  the  sidewalk.  You  are  here  at  every  train  arrival  and  you  ought 
to  have  sense  enough  to  stay  away  from  here,"  and  the  crowd,  with 
the  fear  of  the  military  before  its  eyes,  mutteringly  dispersed. 

At  3  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  a  meeting  of  the  strikers  was 
assembled  in  the  hall  and  called  to  order  by  the  Town  Supervisor, 
Mr.  McCarthy.  Before  the  meeting  opened  two  Deputy  Sheriffs 
who  had  sneaked  in  were  requested  to  get  out.  All  capitalistic 
reporters  were  excluded,  the  only  reporter  who  was  permitted  to  be 
present  being  the  reporter  for  the  Alarm  and  Arbeiter-Zeitung.  The 
men  seemed  afraid  to  speak,  and  after  the  Chairman  had  called  on 
the  audience  several  times  without  any  response,  the  audience  in 


THE  LEMONT  MASSACRE.  85 

turn  called  upon  Mr.  A.  E.  Parsons  to  speak.  Mr.  Parsons  de- 
clined, but  they  insisted,  when  he  made  a  few  remarks  upon  the 
necessity  of  organization,  at  the  conclusion  of  which  several  of  the 
men  objected  to  taking  such  action.  One  of  the  men  spoke  up  and 
said:  "We  are  assembled  here  to  consider  what  to  do.  We  have 
got  the  military  in  our  town  ;  we  are  under  intimidation.  We  want 
the  military  to  leave  our  town  and  let  us  alone.  If  we  organize 
now  it  will  be  the  means  of  losing  our  bread  forever,  and  probably 
our  lives  besides.1' 

Another  speaker  said:  "We  can't  organize.  The  bosses  would 
break  it  up ;  they  did  it  before.  It  would  not  be  allowed.  They 
would  starve  us  out  and  break  it  up." 

Mr.  Parsons  answered  and  said:  "Then  you  are  slaves." 

The  men  hung  their  heads,  and  with  tears  in  their  eyes  several 
of  them  replied  :  "Alas,  sir,  it  is  too  true." 

Another  speaker  then  said:  "As  we  have  started  and  have 
lived  so  far  without  bread,  we  must  keep  on  with  our  struggle 
against  the  bosses.  We  don't  want  those  blue- jackets  on  the  hill 
to  kill  the  people  for  nothing."  [Great  cheering.] 

There  were  such  expressions  as  "We  will  stick  for  our  rights," 
"We  will  not  go  to  work,"  "We  will  stand  out,"  "Let  us  keep  out 
until  we  get  our  wages,"  etc.  The  meeting  was  unanimous  in  stay- 
ing out  until  the  wages  demanded  were  paid. 

A  committe  of  eight,  composed  of  two  persons  each  from  the 
Polish,  Swedish,  German,  and  Irish  nationalities,  was  appointed  to 
wait  upon  the  quarry-owners  and  tell  them  what  they  want,  and 
report  back  to  a  meeting  to  be  held  for  that  purpose.  The  meeting 
resolved  to  stand  by  the  committee  and  help  them  to  the  last  if  the 
bosses  should  victimize  them  for  acting  in  such  a  capacity.  The 
Town  Supervisor  advised  them  to  appoint  the  committee  and 
stated  that  he  thought  they  would  not  suffer,  when  an  Irishman 
spoke  out  and  said :  "If  it  do,  sir,  thank  God,  sir,  you  can  support 
them"  [great  laughter],  when  Mr.  McCarthy  said :  "That  knocks 
me  out." 

After  appointing  the  committee  the  meeting  adjourned. 

The  meeting  was  conducted  mainly  by  Irishmen,  the  Chair- 
man, Secretary,  etc.,  being  Irish,  and  is  proof  that  there  is  no  word 
of  truth  in  the  capitalistic  newspaper  reports  that  this  strike  is 
being  conducted  by  Poles  and  Bohemians  alone. 


86  THE    LEMONT  MASSACRE. 

The  lesson  of  this  strike  will  be  worth  to  workingmen  all  that 
it  has  cost  if  it  is  carefully  considered  and  taken  to  heart.  These 
lessons  are : 

1.  The  rich  rob  the  poor  according  to  law. 

2.  The  "authorities"  exist  for  the  sole  purpose  of  enforcing 
these  laws. 

3.  And  that  without  arms  and  organization  the  worker  is  left 
to  the  mercy  of  those  who  rob,  enslave,  and  murder  him. 

4.  That  to  obey  law  is  to  be  a  slave ;   to  disobey  is  to  be  a 
freeman. 

The  strike  ended  last  Wednesday,  the  men  being  compelled  to 
go  to  work  at  the  quarry-owners'  terms.  The  quarry-owners  now 
intend  to  open  "truck"  stores  in  retaliation  for  the  friendly  feeling 
expressed  by  the  business  men  of  Lemont  toward  the  strikers. 


SELECTED   EDITORIALS.  87 


CHAPTER  V. 


SELECTED  EDITORIALS. 

FOUR  ARTICLES  FROM  THE  PEN  OF  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS — "CHATTEL  AND 
WAGE-SLAVERY" — AN  INQUIRY  TO  DETERMINE  WHEREIN  THEY  DIF- 
FER— "THE  OBJECT  OF  THE  SOCLVL  REVOLUTION" — CAPITAL  THE 
PRODUCT  OF  PAST  AND  PRESENT  GENERATIONS — "A  FABLE" — THE 
FARMER  AND  His  SHEEP — ITS  MORAL — "THE  CUT-DOWN" — THE 
MARKETS  SUSTAINED  IN  PROPORTION  TO  THE  ABILITY  OF  THE  CON- 
SUMER TO  PURCHASE. 

CHATTEL  AND  WAGE  SLAVERY. 
Editorial  taken  from  " The  Alarm." 

\  I  I  HE  owner  of  a  chattel  slave  compelled  obedience  by  the  use  of 
<$  I  {$  the  lash,  deprivation  of  food,  etc.  The  system  of  chattel  slavery 
•*•  was  justified  on  the  ground  that  the  slave  had  been  bought 
and  paid  for,  and  was  therefore  the  private  property  of  the  master. 
This  institution  of  property  in  the  persons  of  men,  women,  and 
children,  who  were  bought  and  sold  separately  or  in  lots  to  suit  the 
buyers  and  sellers,  was  perpetuated  by  the  constitution,  legal  enact- 
ments, Governmental  authority  of  the  United  States  of  America  for 
nearly  a  hundred  years  as  a  perfectly  legitimate,  moral,  and  money- 
making  system  of  labor.  The  chattel-slave  system  has  been  abol- 
ished, and  the  services  of  labor  heretofore  rendered  under  it  are 
now  performed  under  the  wage  system.  The  old  system  is  spoken 
of  by  many  as  the  slave  labor  of  the  past,  and  the  present  system 
is  referred  to  as  the  free  labor  of  the  present.  Under  the  old  system 
the  worker  was  provided  with  food,  clothing,  and  shelter  by  his 
master ;  under  the  new  system  the  worker  is  paid  wages  with  which 
he  is  made  to  provide  himself  with  food,  clothing,  and  shelter. 


88  SELECTED  EDITORIALS. 

Under  the  old  system  the  necessaries  of  life  were  always  furnished 
the  slave ;  under  the  new,  the  wage-worker  is  often  on  strike,  or 
locked  out,  or  in  a  state  of  enforced  idleness,  consequently  suffering 
and  sometimes  perishing  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

The  amount  of  wages  over  and  above  what  will  provide  the 
worker  with  the  necessaries  of  life  is  what  constitutes  the  sum  total 
of  liberty  gained  by  the  change  from  chattel  to  wage  slavery.  The 
amount  of  wages  paid  for  a  day's  or  an  hour's  work  is  on  an  aver- 
age no  more  than  a  bare  subsistence,  and  bears  no  relation  what- 
ever to  the  amount  of  wealth  produced  or  the  real  value  of  the 
laborer's  products.  Wage-workers  perform  twelve  hours'  work  for 
three  hours'  pay,  because  the  extra  nine  hours'  work  is  the  price 
charged  by  the  owners  of  capital  for  the  use  for  three  hours  of  the 
implements  of  labor ;  or,  according  to  the  United  States  census  for 
1880,  each  wage-worker  (and  there  are  17,000,000  of  them  in  this 
country)  is  permitted  to  make  on  an  average  of  $346  annually  for 
himself,  provided  he  will  produce  at  the  same  time  $700  for  his  em- 
ployer, who  charges  this  sum  for  the  use  of  his  capital.  These  are 
hard  terms,  but  they  are  the  best  that  can  be  had  from  the  owners 
of  capital,  since  the  private  ownership  of  the  means  of  existence, 
capital,  confers  upon  its  owners  the  right  to  deny  its  use  altogether. 

The  question  arises :  What  then,  is  the  difference  between  the 
old  and  the  new  system  of  labor  ?  If  the  wage-laborer  can  be  locked 
out,  discharged,  and  thrown  into  a  state  of  enforced  idleness  at  the 
will  of  the  owners  of  capital,  in  what  does  the  wage-laborer's  rights 
or  liberties  consist  ?  The  wage  system  guarantees  to  the  laborer  but 
one  right,  viz. :  the  right  to  starve  !  The  private  ownership  of  capital 
clothes  its  possessor  with  the  authority  of  compulsion,  the  wage- 
laborers  being  driven  by  the  necessities  of  human  existence  to 
accept  with  alacrity  the  offer  of  their  capitalistic  benefactors,  who 
permit  them  to  earn  their  daily  bread  ! 

The  laborer  can  never  be  a  free  man  till  he  owns,  in  common 
with  all  other  laborers,  capital — i.  e.,  the  means  of  his  own  existence 
— for  as  shown  above,  the  organization  of  society  on  any  other  basis 
is  the  practical  enslavement  of  the  laborer,  the  difference  between 
chattel-slavery  and  wage-slavery  being  one  of  form.  The  sub- 
stance remains  the  same :  the  capitalist  in  the  former  system  owned 
the  laborer,  and  hence  his  product,  while  under  the  latter  he  owns 
his  labor  product,  and  hence  the  person  of  the  wage-laborer. 


SELECTED  EDITORIALS.  89 

THE  OBJECT  OF  THE  SOCIAL  KEVOLUTION. 

Editorial  taken  from  "The  Alarm." 

Our  branch  of  Socialism  holds  that  all  existing  statutory  and 
constitutional  powers  of  the  Government  confer  on  capitalists  and 
the  property-holding  classes  the  power  to  compel  the  wage-workers 
to  yield  implicit  obedience  to  their  commands  under  penalty  of 
starvation  or  death  by  physical  violence.  This  is  what  we  call 
wage-slavery.  We  insist  that  no  such  thing  as  freedom  of  contract 
can  exist  between  the  dependent  and  independent.  There  can  be 
no  equality  between  those  who  hold  the  means  of  subsistence  as 
their  private  property,  and  who  can  and  do  dictate  the  terms  of 
existence  to  the  propertyless.  Arbitration,  on  this  account,  must 
prove  a  failure. 

The  march  of  events  is  toward  a  social  revolution.  By  this  ex- 
pression we  mean  the  time  when  the  wage-laborers  of  this  and 
other  countries  will  assert  their  rights — natural  rights — and  main- 
tain them  by  force  of  arms.  The  social  revolution  means  the  ex- 
propriation of  the  means  of  production  and  the  resources  of  life, 
or,  in  other  words,  the  opportunity  to  work  and  live  with  the  un- 
restricted use  of  all  the  means  of  subsistence.  This  revolution  will 
place  capital  at  the  disposition  of  society,  and,  being  a  social  pro- 
duct, the  result  of  the  joint  efforts  of  the  present  and  past  genera- 
tions, belongs  by  natural  right  to  society  alone.  This  outcome  is  a 
necessity  which  can  not  be  avoided.  We  would  prefer  a  peaceful 
solution  rather  than  war,  but  we  do  not  bring  about  the  revolution. 
On  the  contrary,  the  social  condition  creates  the  revolutionists.  It 
will  not  come  because  we  wish  it,  but  because  it  must  come.  We 
simply  foretell  its  approach  and  prepare  for  it. 

When  that  time  shall  come  the  means  of  human  subsistence 
will  be  changed  into  social  wealth.  Capital  will  cease  to  be  private 
property  under  private  control,  and  will  be  held  in  common  for  the 
benefit  of  all.  Boycotting,  strikes,  and  riots  are  simply  indications 
of  the  social  uneasiness,  the  outcome  of  which  must  be  revolution. 


A  FABLE. 

Editorial  taken  from  "The  Alarm." 

A   farmer  had  gathered  his  herd  of  sheep  into  a  pen  pre- 
paratory to  shearing  them  of  their  wool.    Finally,  one  sheep,  be- 


90  SELECTED  EDITORIALS. 

coming  more  bold  than  his  timid  comrades,  seeing  the  farmer 
standing  at  the  gate  with  his  long  shears  in  his  hand,  addressed 
him  thus : 

"Pray,  sir,  why  do  you  huddle  us  together  in  this  style  ?  Will 
you  not  let  us  out  to  play  and  gambol  on  the  hillside  ?  It  is  hot, 
dusty,  and  dry,  and  very  uncomfortable  to  be  cooped  up  in  this 
pen." 

Farmer:  "Certainly,  certainly.  But  before  I  turn  you  out  I 
must  shear  you  of  your  wool." 

Sheep :  "Pray,  sir,  what  harm  have  we  ever  done  you  that  you 
should  now  take  the  covering  from  our  backs,  and  leave  us  un- 
protected to  the  storms  of  winter  and  the  heats  of  summer  ?" 

Farmer:  "You  ungrateful  wretches.  Have  you  no  sense  of 
gratitude  for  the  many  favors  I  have  always  shown  you  ?  If  it  were 
not  for  me  how  could  you  exist  at  all  ?  Don't  I  furnish  you  the 
green  pasture  upon  which  you  browse  and  play?  Besides  that, 
when  I  shear  off  your  present  coating  of  wool  are  you  not  permitted 
by  my  generosity  to  graze  upon  my  fields  and  soon  supply  your- 
selves with  another  coating  ?" 

The  rest  of  the  timid  and  thoughtless  herd  overhearing  the 
conversation  immediately  set  up  a  great  "hurrah"  for  their  sup- 
posed benefactor,  and  one  and  all  calmy  and  patiently  and  with  ap- 
parent satisfaction  submitted  themselves  to  the  process  of  being 
"fleeced  of  their  wool." 

Moral :  When  capitalists  and  their  lying  preachers,  teachers, 
and  politicians  set  themselves  up  as  the  benefactors  of  their  wage- 
slaves,  and  begin  their  long-winded  discourses  upon  the  "harmony" 
of  capital  and  labor,  you  may  be  sure  that  they  are  merely  prepar- 
ing their  wage-slaves  for  a  quiet  submission  while  they  "fleece" 
them  of  their  labor  product. 


THE  CUT-DOWN. 

Editorial  taken  from  "The  Alarm." 

The  markets  of  the  country  come  from  the  amount  of  wages 
the  working  people  receive.  Cut  down  wages  10  per  cent,  all  over 
the  country  and  you  have  lost  about  10  per  cent,  of  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  country.  When  this  falling-off  of  demand  in  the 


SELECTED  EDITORIALS.  91 

market  has  taken  place,  then  another  cut-down  is  more  necessary 
than  the  first.  A  third  cut-down  makes  the  pressure  still  greater 
for  another  cut-down,  and  so  on,  until  no  power  on  earth  can 
sustain  the  market  or  demand  for  any  production  beyond  that 
necessary  to  keep  life  in  the  body.  A  strike  has  the  same  effect  to 
cripple  the  market,  while  the  striker  is  earning  nothing,  that  the 
cut-down  of  wages  has.  As  a  cut-down  takes  from  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  country,  and  a  strike  does  the  same  thing,  the  whole 
fight  is  only  a  choice  of  evils,  and  are  the  natural  fruits  of  the 
wage-system. 

Add  to  this  the  competing  force  of  the  unemployed  laborer, 
caused  by  a  weak  market  of  demand  that  threw  him  out,  and  then 
we  get  the  full  meaning  [of  a  cut-down  or  long  strike,  and  see  how 
one  cut-down  or  strike  aids  and  forces  another  cut-down.  A  strike 
forces  another  cut-down  as  much  as  a  cut-down  does. 


92  AN  INTERESTING  INTERVIEW. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


AN  INTEEESTING  INTEEVIEW. 

THE  HON.  ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,  VICE-PRESIDENT  OF  THE  SOUTHERN 
CONFEDERACY,  DECLARES  HIMSELF  A  COMMUNIST — A.  E.  PARSONS 
MEETS  THE  GEORGIA  STATESMAN  WHILE  IN  WASHINGTON  AS  A 
DELEGATE  OF  THE  EIGHT-HOUR  LEAGUE — THE  EELATIONS  OF  THE 
LABOR  PROBLEM  TO  THE  FUTURE  OF  AMERICA — CONTRASTING  THE 
CONDITION  OF  THE  SOUTH  BEFORE  AND  AFTER  THE  WAR — WAGE- 
LABOR  CHEAPER  THAN  SLAVE  LABOR — HALF  OF  THE  WAGES  TAKEN 
BY  THE  GOVERNMENT  FOR  TAXES. 

Taken  from  the  Chicago  Daily  Telegraph  of  January  20,  1880. 

,E.  ALBEET  E.  PAESONS,  a  delegate  from  the  Eight-Hour 
League,  of  this  city,  to  the  conference  in  regard  to  land 
reform  and  the  labormovement  held  at  Washington,  D.C., 
last  week,  returned  a  day  or  two  since  and  was  this  morning  inter- 
viewed by  a  Telegraph  reporter  relative  to  an  interview  held  by  that 
gentleman  with  tha  Hon.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,Vice-President  of 
the  dead  Confederacy. 

Mr.Parsonswas  introduced  to  Mr.  Stephens  as  a  "Communist," 
and  was  not  a  little  surprised  to  hear  that  gentlemen  announce  that 
he  himself  was  not  only  a  Communist  but  an  agrarian.  "No  two 
words,"  said  the  ex-President,  "express  so  much,  in  my  opinion,  as 
these  two  words,  for  as  Communism  has  developed  in  France, 
Spain,  and  other  countries  during  the  past  few  years,  and  as  it 
relates  to  the  sovereignty  of  local  Government,  and  the  nature  and 
functions  of  State  rule,  it  develops  a  marvelous  bearing  on  the 
future  of  America.  I  can  conceive  of  no  characters  in  history  more 


AN  INTERESTING  INTERVIEW.  98 

interesting  than  the  Gracchi  brothers,  of  Home.  The  problems  of 
labor  and  Communism  will  yet  be  dominant  themes  in  Congress, 
and,  although  I  should  like  to  speak  upon  these  subjects  during 
the  present  year,  I  fear  political  trickery  is  occupying  the  time  of 
the  wire-pullers,  and  they  will  exclude  all  such  discussion  from 
Congress  during  the  Presidential  year. 

In  regard  to  the  condition  of  the  South,  comparing  the  chattel 
slave  and  wage  systems,  the  results  do  not  favor  the  former  so  far 
as  the  employer  is  concerned.  Mr.  Stephens  dealt  in  extensio  on  this 
theme,  and  stated  that  the  wage  system  makes  labor  cheaper  and 
more  serviceable  for  the  former  masters  of  the  South.  He  based 
his  decision  on  the  power  and  ability  of  the  worker  to  consume 
animal  food.  In  France  the  average  consumption  of  meat  per 
person  is  75  pounds  annually,  in  Germany  25  pounds,  in  Ireland 
10  pounds,  and  among  the  former  slaves  of  the  South  under  the  new 
wage  system  50  pounds  a  year.  In  ante-War  times  the  master  al- 
lowed his  slave  200  pounds  of  meat  annually,  and  clothing  and  the 
like  is  decreased  in  a  like  ratio,  making  a  difference  of  300  per  cent, 
unfavorable  to  the  colored  people.  Mr.  Stephens  said  he  under- 
stood that  thousands  of  workingmen  in  the  North  were  out  of  em- 
ployment, and  were  not  able  to  earn  sufficient  at  any  time  to  pro- 
vide what  they  should  for  their  families.  These  same  views  were 
made  by  Jefferson  Davis  about  a  year  since,  who  claimed  that  the 
colored  people  were  more  profit  to  their  employers  than  before  the 
War,  when  the  care  of  the  sick,  dead,  and  indigent  involved  con- 
siderable expense,  now  avoided  by  their  masters. 

Mr.  Stephens  is  in  thorough  harmony  with  many  reforms  now 
in  progress,  and  states  that  the  taxation  of  the  United  States  is 
more  onorous  than  that  of  any  other  country  in  the  world.  "The 
tax  on  the  liquor  and  tobacco,"  he  said,  "consumed  by  an  average 
poor  family  in  the  South  amounts  to  $7.50,  and,  as  these  people 
make  about  $10  a  month,  over  $5  of  that  amount  is  consumed  in 
paying  taxes  to  the  Government." 

Mr.  Parsons  called  the  statesman's  attention  to  the  fact  that, 
viewed  in  its  philosophical  sense,  the  subject  of  labor  plainly  indi- 
cated that  the  system  of  buying  and  selling  labor  was  destructive 
to  the  fundamental  principles  of  liberty,  and  this  profit-making 
was  what  kept  the  masses  down  and  what  made  the  operations  of 
the  colored  people  in  the  South  look  so  unfavorable.  The  capitalist 


94  AN  INTERESTING  INTERVIEW. 

and  employer  made  too  much ;  the  laborer  received  too  little.  It 
was  plunder,  not  hard  times,  which  made  the  poor  man  complain. 

Mr.  Stephens  concluded  by  stating  that  he  sympathized  keenly 
with  the  grievances  of  the  people,  but  hoped  the  riots  of  1877  would 
never  be  repeated  as  a  means  of  enforcing  the  rights  of  working- 
men.  "I  believe  in  the  eight-hour  system  of  labor,"  he  said,  "but  I 
fear  the  present  splurge  of  the  Communists  is  like  an  epidemic,  and 
it  may  fail.  A  man  generally  has  the  small-pox  only  once." 

"You  are  right,"  replied  Mr.  Parsons,  "and  then  it  either  kills 
or  cures." 


ALBERT  R.  PARSONS. 


PART  IV. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE  HAYMARKET  MEETING. 

A  GRAPHIC  DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  ATTACK  ON  THAT  PEACEABLE  ASSEMBLY 
— THE  COMMMAND  TO  DISPERSE  AND  THE  TRAGIC  REPLY — TERRIBLE 
EFFECTIVENESS  OF  ONE  BOMB — THE  POLICE  WOULD  HAVE  BEEN 
AN  EASY  PREY  FOR  AN  ORGANIZED  CONSPIRACY — A  REIGN  OF  TERROR 
— PAPERS  SUSPENDED,  HOMES  INVADED,  AND  SUSPECTS  SUBJECTED 
TO  CRUEL  INDIGNITIES. 

Taken  from  the  Denver  "Labor  Enquirer  "  of  May  17,  2886. 

\  I  I  HE  readers  of  the  Enquirer  have  read  with  bated  breath  the 
^  I  IQ  startling  news  flashed  from  this  city  on  Tuesday  last  of  the 
•*•  ushering  in  and  demonstration  of  the  new  method  of  scien- 
tific warfare. 

What  was  it,  and  what  the  occasion  of  the  bringing  forth  of  the 
fell  destroyer  from  his  lurking-place  in  the  realms  of  science  with 
such  direful  results  ?  The  cause  may  be  given  in  a  future  letter ;  the 
results  may  be  given  here. 

The  minions  of  the  oppressing  class  were  marched  up  to  one  of 
the  most  peaceably  assembled  meetings  ever  held  in  this  country 
by  any  class  of  people  to  discuss  questions  concerning  their  own  in- 


yb  THE  HAYMAKKET  MEETING. 

terests,  and  commanded  them  to  "disperse."  The  individual  giving 
this  order  was  backed  by  about  800  armed  and  bludgeoned  police, 
whom  the  capitalistic  press  describe  as  having  "grasped  their  clubs 
tighter  as  they  came  in  sight  of  the  Anarchists  assembled." 

Well,  as  the  minions  moved  from  the  station,  which  was  half  a 
block  away  from  the  meeting,  they  came  like  a  lowering  cloud  to 
blot  out  the  sunlight  of  free  speech  on  American  soil.  Sweeping 
from  curbstone  to  curbstone  (a  new  military  tactic  which  they  had 
been  practicing  for  some  time  especially  for  the  Anarchists),  and 
stepping  with  military  precision  and  unbroken  ranks,  each  one 
"grasping  tightly  his  club,"  compelled  the  people  peaceably  assern 
bled  there  to  fall  back  upon  the  sidewalk.  When  the  three  first 
columns  had  moved  past  the  speakers'  stand  a  halt  was  called. 
Then  the  individual  referred  to  commanded  these  peaceable  people 
to  "disperse."  The  reply  was  given  in  thunder  tones,  which  shook 
the  great  massive  buildings  for  blocks  around.  A  great  swath  had 
been  cut  in  the  ranks  of  the  police.  But  before  their  groans, 
mingled  with  the  succeeding  echoes  of  the  great  explosion,  could 
rise,  as  it  were,  from  the  place  where  they  originated,  there  came 
a  fusilade  of  pistol-shots.  The  bomb  had  been  flung  with  such 
sudden  and  deadly  effect  that  it  had  thoroughly  disorganized  and 
demoralized  the  police,  and  they  became  an  easy  prey  for  an  enemy 
to  attack  and  completely  annihilate  if  there  had  been  any  conspiracy 
or  concocted  understanding,  as  has  been  howled  and  shouted  by 
the  capitalistic  press. 

It  was  the  shortest,  sharpest,  and  most  decisive  battle,  I  be- 
lieve, on  record.  In  less  then  three  minutes  the  most  horrible 
explosion  ever  known  of  its  kind  had  taken  place,  over  200  shots 
had  been  fired,  and  over  fifty  police  lay  writhing  in  their  blood 
upon  the  ground.  The  3,000  or  more  persons  who  had  been 
assembled  on  the  spot  less  than  an  hour  previous — where  were 
they  ?  For  nothing  now  was  to  be  heard  or  seen  but  the  writhing, 
groaning  police,  and  citizens  whose  names  were  never  known,  and 
the  coming  and  going  of  the  patrol,  each  loaded  with  victims  and 
conveying  them  to  the  hospitals. 

Since  that  date  a  reign  of  terror  has  been  inaugurated  which 
would  put  to  shame  the  most  zealous  Kussian  blood-hound.  The 
organized  banditti  and  conscienceless  brigands  of  capital  have  sus- 
pended the  only  papers  which  would  give  the  side  of  those  whom 


THE  HAYMARKET  MEETING.  99 

they  had  crammed  into  prison  cells.  They  have  invaded  the  homes 
of  every  one  who  has  ever  been  known  to  have  raised  a  voice  or 
sympathized  with  those  who  have  had  aught  to  say  against  the 
present  system  of  robbery  and  oppression.  I  say  they  have  invaded 
their  homes  and  subjected  them  and  their  families  to  indignities 
that  must  be  seen  to  be  believed.  This  organized  banditti  have  ar- 
rested me  four  times;  they  have  subjected  me  to  indignities  that 
should  bring  the  tinge  of  shame  to  the  calloused  cheek  of  a  hard- 
ened barbarian. 

But  evidently  becoming  convinced  that  I  had  nothing  to  "give 
away,"  they  have  ceased  to  drag  me  to  the  station,  for  the  time  at 
least.  But  my  comrades  need  have  no  concern  lest  these  ruffians 
should,  by  their  brutal  treatment  of  me,  drive  me  to  distraction. 
They  simply  challenge  my  contempt. 

All  we  in  Chicago  ask  of  our  comrades  abroad  is  to  withhold 
their  opinion  until  they  hear  our  side,  and  to  furnish  us  such  moral 
and  financial  aid  as  they  can. 

LUCY  E.  PARSONS. 

CHICAGO,  May  10,  1886. 


100  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHOEITY. 


ALBEET  E.  PARSONS  AS  CAPT.  W.  P.  BLACK  KNEW  HIM — PARSONS  SUR- 
RENDERS HIMSELF  TO  STAND  TRIAL  WITH  His  COMRADES— His 
CONNECTION  WITH  THE  HAYMARKET  MEETING — SOME  POINTS  OF 
THE  DEFENSE — THE  VERDICT  CALMLY  RECEIVED  BY  THE  PRISONERS 
— PARSONS  REFUSES  TO  SIGN  A  PETITION  FOR  CLEMENCY — HEROIC 
EFFORT  TO  SAVE  His  COMPANIONS — MARTYRS  TO  THEIR  CONVIC- 
TIONS. 

IN  THE  period  elapsing  between  the  4th  of  May,  1886,  and  the 
21st  of  June,  when  the  trial  of  the  indictment  against  Spies, 
et  al.,  was  begun  in  the  Criminal  Court  of  Cook  county,  and 
while  the  attorneys  engaged  for  the  defendants  were  busy  with 
their  preparations  for  the  struggle,  the  question  was  several  times 
presented  as  to  whether  or  not  Albert  R.  Parsons  could  safely  come 
to  the  bar  and  submit  to  a  trial  under  the  indictment  along  with 
those  who  were  then  in  prison.  This  question  was  first  brought  to 
our  attention  by  Mrs.  Parsons,  who  told  us  that  her  husband  had 
written  to  her  desiring  to  know  our  views  upon  the  subject.  She 
stated  to  us  that  her  husband  was  perfectly  willing  to  act  in  the 
matter  as  we  should  advise;  that  knowing  that  he  had  neither 
participation  in  nor  reponsibility  for  the  throwing  of  the  bomb  at 
the  Haymarket  meeting,  and  that  in  fact  he  had  no  knowledge  of 
the  meeting  itself  until  about  the  time  he  was  called  to  speak  at  it, 
he  was  himself  confident  that  a  trial  of  the  indictment  as  against 
him  could  only  result  in  his  acquittal,  if  there  was  any  hope  of 
securing  an  impartial  jury;  and  that  if  it  was  judged  that  his 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  101 

presence  during  the  trial  would  be  likely  to  be  in  any  measure  help- 
ful to  those  who  were  accused  with  him,  he  was  ready  to  come  to 
the  bar. 

When  this  question  was  first  presented  it  was  met  with  the 
suggestion  that  there  would  be  time  enough  to  consider  the  matter 
later  on,  as  it  would  be  sufficient  if  he  appeared  in  Court  at  any 
time  before  the  impanneling  of  the  jury  was  commenced.  During 
the  week  immediately  preceding  the  21st  of  June  Mrs.  Parsons 
came  again  to  the  attorneys  for  the  defence,  saying  that  bhe  was 
directed  by  her  husband  once  more  to  bring  this  question  before  us 
for  our  advice  and  determination.  At  that  time  we  felt  reasonably 
sure  as  to  what  would  be  developed  upon  the  trial  by  the  evidence 
in  reference  to  Parsons'  movements,  and  that  upon  the  evidence  we 
could  demonstrate  to  any  dispassionate  mind  that  Mr.  Parsons  had 
never  counseled,  aided,  abetted,  or  advised  the  throwing  of  the 
bomb  at  the  Haymarket  meeting.  But  it  was  felt  by  us  all,  in  the 
then  condition  of  public  opinion — the  full  rancor  of  which,  how- 
ever, was  not  appreciated  by  any  of  us — that  there  was  a  certain 
element  of  danger  in  the  coming  even  of  a  demonstrably  innocent 
man  into  this  community  to  submit  to  trial,  when,  confessedly,  that 
man  had  been  a  leader  for  years  in  the  labor  agitation  which  was 
prevalent,  and  was  an  apostle  of  the  doctrine  of  agitation  for 
organization,  and  organization  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  a 
changed  condition  of  society,  which  change  it  was  proposed  to 
accomplish  in  order  to  secure  as  of  right  to  the  wage-earners  a 
larger  and  more  nearly  just  share  in  the  results  of  their  own  pro- 
duction. In  other  words,  we  all  knew  that  Mr.  Parsons  was  a  pro- 
fessed Anarchist,  and  that  he  was  a  believer  in  the  prediction  that 
the  injustice  and  inequalities  existing  under  the  present  system  of 
social  order  pointed  inevitably  to  revolution,  because  of  the  known 
and  fixed  indisposition  of  those  possessed  of  wealth  and  holding 
power  to  make  a  voluntary  change  in  the  adjustment  of  affairs 
such  as  would  bring  to  realization  the  dream  and  hope  of  the  social 
reformer. 

We  knew  enough  of  Mr.  Parsons  to  believe  that  if  he  came  to 
the  bar  of  the  Court  voluntarily,  submitted  himself  to  its  juris- 
diction, and  braved  its  judgment  upon  the  accusation  preferred 
against  him,  he  would  be  a  party  to  no  deception,  he  would  yield 
to  no  paltering,  he  would  consent  to  no  lowering  of  his  standard 


102  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

of  opinion  merely  in  the  hope  of  personal  advantage  or  of  placat- 
ing the  bitter  feeling  that  had  been  aroused  against  these  labor 
leaders.  It  was  a  serious  matter,  therefore,  when  we  were  asked  to 
advise  Mr.  Parsons  upon  the  question  submitted  to  us ;  but  our 
advice  was  asked,  and  under  such  circumstances  that  we  felt  it  a 
duty  to  speak.  We  knew  that  Mr.  Parsons  was  in  a  place  of 
absolute  safety,  and  that  every  effort  of  the  police  to  discover  him 
had  proved  utterly  unavailing.  We  knew  that  around  him  was  a 
cordon  of  friends  keeping  ceaseless  watch,  and  that  he  could,  from 
a  distance,  if  so  advised,  observe  the  progress  of  the  impending 
trial  in  personal  safety.  Could  he  with  reasonable  safety  coma  to 
the  bar  of  the  Court  ?  Was  the  possible  advantage  of  such  a  step 
sufficient  to  justify  the  hazard  ? 

In  obedience  to  the  request  of  his  wife  I  wrote  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Parsons  upon  the  subject  of  his  inquiry,  in  which  I  tried  to  set 
before  him  fully  the  danger  which  confronted  him  in  the  event  of  his 
return,  and  the  possibilities  of  awful  consequences,  but  in  which  I 
expressed  the  personal  belief  that  we  could  satisfactorily  establish 
his  innocence,  and  therefore  could  secure  his  acquittal ;  that  I  be- 
lieved the  effect  of  his  return  and  presence  in  the  trial  could  not  but 
be  advantageous  to  his  co-defendants.  But  1  told  him  in  effect  that 
the  responsibility  of  advising  his  return  was  one  that  I  could  not 
and  would  not  take — I  could  only  lay  the  case  fully  before  him,  and 
leave  it  to  him  to  determine  what  action  he  would  take. 

Albert  E.  Parsons  came  of  his  own  volition,  and  prompted  by 
his  own  sense  of  right  and  of  loyalty  to  his  comrades  in  labor, 
from  a  place  of  absolute  security,  walked,  unrecognized,  to  the  very 
bar  of  the  Court,  and  there  submitted  himself  to  the  imprisonment 
from  which  he  was  liberated  on  the  scaffold. 

Did  he  ever  regret  that  step  ?  I  can  only  say  that  never,  in  all 
the  weeks  and  months  that  followed,  did  he  express  to  me,  nor  for 
a  single  instant  manifest,  the  slightest  regret.  He  constantly  pro- 
tested that  he  would  do  the  same  again ;  and  when  he  stood  up  be- 
fore the  Court  in  answer  to  its  question  to  show  cause  why  sentence 
of  death  should  not  be  pronounced  upon  him,  the  closing  words  of 
his  memorable  speech  were,  that,  despite  all  that  had  followed  his 
return,  he  had  nothing  to  regret ;  while  as  he  said  it,  as  if  to  give 
deeper  significance  to  his  statement,  he  came  to  where  I  sat  and 
placed  his  arm  upon  my  shoulder,  as  if  speaking  the  words  to  me. 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  103 

He  knew  that  I  had  carried  a  certain  burden,  in  connection  with 
the  untoward  ending  of  his  trial,  because  of  the  part  I  had  taken 
in  connection  with  his  return.  It  was  of  me  that  he  thought  in 
that  moment,  and  for  my  comfort  that  he  spoke  the  words. 

Until  that  21st  of  June,  1886,  my  personal  acquaintance  with 
Albert  B.  Parsons  had  been  of  the  very  slightest ;  we  had  not  met 
more  than  three  or  four  times,  and  that  only  at  long  intervals,  and 
under  circumstances  which  made  the  acqaintance  formal  and  of  a 
business  character.  I  knew  nothing  of  the  inner  nature  of  the  man. 
I  knew  in  a  general  way  that  he  had  been  a  labor  agitator,  and 
that  he  was  accounted  by  the  people  of  means  with  whom  I  ordin- 
arily associated  "a  pestilent  fellow,"  somewhat  dangerous  to  the 
community,  and  certainly  uncomfortable  to  the  loveis  of  ease  and 
those  having  the  disposition  to  maintain  the  established  order 
which  prevails  generally  among  people  whose  good  fortune  it  has 
been  to  get  ahead  in  the  world  and  to  cradle  themselves  in  the  lap 
of  luxury.  I  can  say  in  all  truthfulness  that  certainly  I  did  not 
at  that  time  specially  admire  him ;  but  I  can  also  say  that  even 
then  I  regarded  his  conduct  in  coming  of  his  own  volition  to  the  bar 
of  the  Court,  to  make  common  cause  with  those  who  were  joined  in 
the  indictment  and  to  take  part  in  the  chance  of  the  trial  with 
them,  as  admirable,  having  in  it  certainly  a  touch  of  the  heroic. 

For  Albert  E.  Parsons  was  comparatively  a  young  man;  and 
notwithstanding  the  arduous  service  he  had  been  called  upon  to 
render  in  his  espousal  and  advocacy  of  the  cause  of  the  wage 
classes  of  society,  and  despite  his  scanty  means,  and  oftentimes 
actual  privation  resulting  therefrom,  he  had  yet  much  to  make 
life  bright  to  him,  much  to  make  him  happy  in  life.  He  had  a  wife 
whose  devotion  to  him  has  since  become  proverbial,  and  two  beauti- 
ful children  to  whom  he  was  as  tenderly  attached  as  any  father  to 
his  young  I  have  ever  known.  He  knew,  too,  far  better  than  I  knew, 
the  intensity  of  the  hostile  feeling  existing  between  the  property- 
owners  ordinarily  dominating  the  opinion  of  society  and  the  agi- 
tators, who,  as  it  seemed  to  them,  were  constantly  threatening  their 
possessions  and  repose.  He  appreciated,  far  more  than  I  did  at 
the  time,  the  actual  hazard  of  the  step  he  took.  That  he  should,  in 
the  retirement  and  seclusion  of  his  retreat,  and":after  weeks  of 
consideration,  during  which  his  own  personal  safety  was  demon- 
strated, have  reached  and  acted  upon  the  fixed  resolve  to  offer  his 


104  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

own  life  in  what  be  believed  to  be  tbe  cause  of  the  wage  class,  and 
for  the  possible  advantage  of  bis  fellow-agitators,  was  heroic.  I  be- 
lieve that  the  day  will  yet  come  when  intelligent  and  dispassionate 
people  will  regard  with  a  sort  of  incredulous  horror  the  action  of 
the  community  that  consigned  such  a  man  to  death,  refused  him 
reprieve,  and  exacted  the  final  and  supreme  penalty  of  the  law. 
For  what  was  the  case  made  by  tbe  State  against  Albert  E. 
Parsons  ? 

It  was  shown  without  contradiction  that  on  Sunday,  May  2, 
1886,  Albert  E.  Parsons  was  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  0.,  returning 
to  Chicago  on  the  morning  of  Tuesday,  May  4 ;  that  immediately 
upon  bis  return  be  caused  a  notice,  calling  for  a  meeting  of  tbe 
American  Group  of  the  International  at  107  Fifth  avenue  for  the 
evening  of  May  4,  to  be  inserted  in  the  Daily  News  of  that  after- 
noon ;  that  in  the  evening  he  left  bis  house  in  company  with  bis 
wife,  Mrs.  Holmes,  a  lady  friend,  and  bis  two  little  children,  aged 
5  and  7  years,  respectively ;  that  they  walked  from  their  home  on 
the  West  Side  as  far  as  to  the  corner  of  Eandolph  and  Halsted 
streets,  where  they  met  two  reporters — namely :  Mr.  Heineman  and 
Mr.  Owen.  There  Mr.  Parsons  and  his  party  took  a  car  and  rode 
direct  to  107  Fifth  avenue,  where  they  arrived  about  half  past  8 
o'clock,  and  remained  about  half  an  hour.  Concerning  this  meeting 
at  the  corner  of  Halsted  and  Eandolph  streets  Mr.  Owen,  who  wa  s 
called  as  one  of  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  testified  as  fol- 
lows: 

"I  saw  Parsons  at  the  corner  of  Eandolph  and  Halsted  streets 
shortly  before  8  o'clock ;  I  asked  him  where  the  meeting  was  going 
to  be  held ;  he  said  he  did  not  know  anything  about  the  meeting. 
I  asked  him  whether  he  was  going  to  speak.  He  said :  No,  be  was 
going  over  to  the  South  Side.  Mrs.  Parsons  and  some  children 
came  up  just  then,  and  Mr.  Parsons,  before  entering  tbe  street  car, 
slapped  me  familiarly  upon  the  back  and  asked  me  if  I  was  armed, 
and  I  said  no.  I  asked  him  :  'Have  you  any  dynamite  about  you  ?' 
He  laughed,  and  Mrs.  Parsons  said :  'He  is  a  very  dangerous-looking 
man,  isn't  he  ?'  And  they  got  on  the  car  and  went  east.  I  believe 
Mr.  Heineman  was  with  me." 

Mr.  Heineman  was  also  called  as  a  witness  for  the  prosecution, 
and  while  his  testimony  as  to  this  meeting  was  not  quite  as  full  as 
that  of  Mr.  Owen,  it  was  in  substantial  harmony  therewith. 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  105 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Group,  as  was  shown  by  an 
abundance  of  uncontradicted  testimony,  there  were  present,  all  told, 
about  fifteen  members,  including  Mr.  Parsons,  his  wife,  and  Mrs. 
Holmes ;  and  the  subject  considered  was  the  matter  of  the  organi- 
zation of  the  sewing  women  of  Chicago,  with  reference  to  the  eight- 
hour  movement.  Some  steps  were  taken,  and  some  slight  expendi- 
tures were  authorized,  to  accomplish  the  organization  of  these 
seamstresses ;  and  when  this  work  had  been  nearly  concluded,  and 
the  meeting  was  about  ready  to  adjourn,  a  messenger  arrived,  who 
had  been  sent  over  by  Mr.  Spies  from  the  Haymarket  meeting, 
then  assembled,  stating  that  there  was  great  and  immediate  need 
for  speakers,  and  urging  that  some  of  those  attending  at  107  Fifth 
avenue  should  come  over  at  once  to  speak  to  the  Haymarket  meet- 
ing. Thereupon  the  American  Group  adjourned  its  meeting,  and 
most  of  the  members  walked  over  to  the  Haymarket,  a  distance  of 
about  half  a  mile,  Mr.  Parsons  and  his  entire  family,  Mr.  Fielden, 
and  others  going  direct  to  the  meeting,  as  shown  by  the  evidence. 

Parsons  reached  the  Haymarket  some  time  shortly  aftej:  9 
o'clock,  while  Spies  was  speaking,  and  directly  afterward  Spies 
stopped  and  introduced  Parsons  to  the  audience.  Parsons  spoke 
from  three-quarters  of  an  hour  to  an  hour.  It  was  concurred  in  by 
all  of  the  witnesses  who  testified  in  reference  to  Parsons'  speech 
that  it  was  largely  statistical  in  its  nature,  and  devoted  to  a  review 
of  the  disturbed  condition  of  the  labor  world ;  and  it  was  conceded 
by  all  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution  that  when,  in  the  course  of 
his  remarks,  he  mentioned  the  name  of  Jay  Gould,  in  connection  with 
the  Southwestern  railway  troubles,  and  some  one  in  the  audience 
proposed  tbe  hanging  of  the  railway  magnate,  Parsons  immediately 
replied  deprecating  such  utterance,  saying  in  effect :  "No !  This  is 
not  a  conflict  between  individuals,  but  for  a  change  of  system,  and 
Socialism  aims  to  remove  the  causes  which  produce  the  pauper  and 
the  millionaire,  but  does  not  aim  at  the  life  of  the  individual."  He 
said  further  in  substance:  "Kill  Jay  Gould,  and  like  a  jack-in-a- 
box  another  or  a  hundred  others  like  him  will  come,  up  in  his  place 
under  the  existing  social  conditions;"  and  he  also  used  the  figure 
that  to  kill  the  individual  millionaire  or  capitalist  would  be  like 
killing  a  flea  upon  a  dog,  wheras  the  purpose  of  Socialism  was  the 
destruction  of  the  dog — the  change  of  the  existing  system.  That 
this  was  the  substance  and  tenor  of  Parsons'  response  to  the  one 


106  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHOKITY. 

suggestion  of  violence  that  came  from  his  audience  during  his  entire 
address  stands  admitted  upon  the  record  in  the  case. 

Some  of  the  witnesses  for  the  State  testified  that  at  some  point 
in  his  discourse  Parsons  used  the  expression :  "To  arms  !  To  arms  I 
To  arms  !"  This  was  the  only  incendiary  utterance  that  was  claimed 
to  have  been  made  use  of  by  him.  But  in  reference  to  this  expres- 
sion, and  the  connection  in  which  it  was  used  by  Mr.  Parsons,  the 
most  convincing  testimony  offered  on  the  part  of  the  prosecution 
was  that  of  Mr.  English,  a  stenographic  reporter  for  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  who  attended  the  meeting  under  instructions  from  the 
management  of  the  paper  which  he  represented,  as  testified  by  him- 
self, to  report  only  the  most  inflammatory  utterances.  Such  utter- 
ances, however,  he  reported  verbatim ;  and  his  stenographic  report, 
read  to  the  jury,  as  to  this  remark,  was  in  the  following  words,  given 
as  spoken  by  Mr.  Parsons : 

"It  behooves  you,  as  you  love  your  wife  and  children,  if  you  do 
not  want  to  see  them  perish  with  hunger,  killed,  or  shot  down  like 
dogs  in  the  street,  Americans,  in  the  interest  of  your  liberty  and 
independence,  to  arm,  to  arm  yourselves.  [Applause  and  cries  of 
"We  will  do  it,"  "We  are  ready  now."]  You  are  not." 

Mr.  English  further  stated  positively  in  this  connection  that 
when  Parsons  said :  "To  arm,  to  arm  yourselves  !"  he  said  it  in  the 
ordinary  tone  of  voice  in  which  he  was  then  speaking.  He  stated 
also,  that  this  expression  was  shortly  following  an  utterance  of  Par- 
sons in  the  following  language :  "I  am  not  here  for  the  purpose  of 
inciting  anybody,  but  to  speak  out,  to  tell  the  facts  as  they  exist, 
even  though  it  should  cost  my  life  before  morning." 

Mayor  Harrison,  who  heard  Parsons'  speech,  and  attended  the 
meeting  for  the  purpose  of  dispersing  it  if  anything  should  occur 
to  require  interference,  upon  the  witness-stand  testified  that  he 
heard  nothing  spoken  by  Parsons  that  in  his  judgment  required  any 
action  upcn  his  part ;  that  his  speech  was  largely  statistical,  and 
while  he  would  denominate  it  as  a  violent  political  harangue,  it 
was  in  fact  unusually  moderate  in  its  tone  as  compared  with  what 
was  habitual  to  speakers  occupying  Mr.  Parsons'  position  upon  such 
occasions.  Certain  it  is,  that  Mr.  Harrison,  the  chief  executive 
officer  of  the  city,  having  its  welfare  at  heart,  and  charged  with  the 
responsibility  of  preserving  its  peace  and  safety,  left  the  meeting  at 
the  end  of  Parsons'  speech,  and  told  Inspector  Bonfield  at  the  sta- 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  107 

tion,  only  a  block  away  from  the  meeting,  where  the  police  forces 
were  massed,  that  nothing  had  up  to  that  time  occurred,  or  seemed 
likely  to  occur,  to  require  interference,  and  that  Bonfield  had  bet- 
ter issue  orders  to  his  reserves  at  the  other  stations  to  go  home. 
To  this  suggestion  of  the  Mayor  Mr.  Bonfield  responded  at  once 
that  his  detectives,  who  were  in  attendance  upon  the  meeting  and 
were  constantly  bringing  him  reports  as  to  its  progress  and  tone, 
had  made  to  him  the  same  report  as  to  the  character  of  the  meeting 
and  the  utterances  thereat,  and  that  he  had  already  ordered  the 
reserves  at  the  other  stations  to  disperse ;  but  that  he  thought  it 
was  better  for  him  to  hold  the  forces  at  the  Desplaines  street  sta- 
tion together  to  prevent  possible  violence  after  the  adjournment  of 
the  meeting.  Thus  assured  that  there  was  no  present  or  prospect- 
ive danger  in  connection  with  the  Haymarket  meeting,  Mr.  Har- 
rison went  home. 

After  speaking  about  an  hour  Parsons  brought  his  address  to  a 
close,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Fielden. 

Fielden  spoke  about  ten  minutes,  when  a  cloud,  accompanied 
by  a  cold  wind  and  with  some  threatenings  of  rain,  swept  up  in  the 
northern  sky ;  whereupon  Mr.  Parsons  interrupted  him  and  sug- 
gested an  adjournment  of  the  meeting  to  Zepf's  hall,  which  was 
in  a  building  situated  on  the  northeast  corner  of  Lake  and  Des- 
plaines streets,  about  half  a  block  from  the  location  of  the  Hay- 
market  meeting.  To  this  some  one  in  the  crowd  responded  that 
the  hall  was  already  occupied  by  a  meeting  of  the  Furniture-Workers' 
Union,  and  thereupon  Fielden  suggested  that  he  would  be  through 
in  a  few  minutes  and  then  they  could  all  go  home ;  after  which 
Fielden  proceeded  with  his  remarks.  But  the  suggestion  made  by 
Mr.  Parsons,  coupled  with  the  threatening  aspect  of  the  sky  and  the 
cold  change,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  the  hour  was  late  and  the 
crowd  wearied  with  standing  several  hours  in  the  open  air,  furnished 
the  occasion  for  the  scattering  of  the  larger  part  of  the  audience ;  so 
that  the  conclusion  of  Fielden's  speech  was  addressed  to  an  assem- 
blage eslimated  by  the  various  witnesses  who  spoke  on  the  point,  at 
from  200  to  500  people,  not  a  single  witness  worthy  of  belief  placing 
the  number  higher  than  the  last-named  figure.  Stepping  from  the 
speakers'  wagon  Mr.  Parsons  went  to  another  wagon  situated  a  few 
paces  north  of  it,  in  which  sat  his  wife  and  Mrs.  Holmes  with  some 
friends,  and  proposed  to  them  that  they  should  all  go  together  to 


108  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

Zepf 's  hall,  which  was  accordingly  done.  Within  about  five  minutes 
thereafter  the  bomb  at  the  Haymarket  exploded,  and  it  was  proved 
incontestibly,  without  any  contradiction  whatever,  that  at  the  time 
the  bomb  exploded,  Parsons,  together  with  his  wife,  Mrs.  Holmes, 
and  others,  was  in  Zepf 's  saloon,  which  occupied  the  ground  floor  in 
the  building  in  which  Zepf 's  hall  was  located. 

No  effort  was  made  by  the  prosecution,  because  none  could  be 
successfully  made,  unless  by  rank  perjury,  to  convict  Parsons  of 
any  knowledge  whatever  of  any  of  the  preliminaries  of  the  Hay- 
market  meeting.  That  meeting  had  been  arranged  for  at  a  meet- 
ing held  at  Greif's  hall,  No.  54  West  Lake  street,  on  Monday  night, 
May  3,  1886.  The  professed  purpose  Of  the  Haymarket  meeting 
was  to  consider  and  protest  against  the  conduct  of  the  police  at  the 
McCormick  riot,  following  a  meeting  at  the  Black  road  held  near 
McCormick's  reaper  works  on  the  afternoon  of  Monday,  May  3. 
The  Haymarket  meeting  was  called  by  a  circular  issued  by  direction 
of  the  Monday  night  meeting,  at  which  meeting,  as  shown  by  the 
evidence,  only  two  of  the  eight  men  who  were  upon  trial  were 
present — to- wit :  Fischer  and  Engel.  On  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday, 
May  4,  two  others  of  the  accused — to-wit :  Schwab  and  Spies — were 
apprised  of  the  Monday  night  meeting  and  of  the  proceeding 
thereat,  which  they  at  once  denounced  as  foolish  in  the  extreme,  and 
as  to  which  they  took  immediate  steps  and  every  possible  pre- 
caution to  prevent  any  action  thereunder  or  rash  consequences.  It 
was  admitted  by  all  the  witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  however, 
that  when  the  Haymarket  meeting  was  determined  upon,  at  the 
Monday  night  meeting,  it  was  distinctly  talked  and  understood  that 
there  was  to  be  no  preparation  whatever  for  violence  at  the  Hay- 
market  meeting  nor  was  it  expected  that  any  collision  with  the 
police  would  occur  then,  but  that  the  same  was  to  be  simply  an 
agitation  meeting,  and  for  the  purpose  suggested.  Parsons  never 
heard  of  the  Monday  night  meeting,  nor  of  the  proceedings  thereof, 
until  after  the  Haymarket  meeting  had  come  to  its  tragic  ter- 
mination. 

A  dispassionate  consideration  of  the  testimony  in  the  record 
can  not  but  convince  any  fair-minded  person  that  when  Parsons 
went  to  the  Haymarket  meeting,  upon  the  request  received  at  the 
American  Group  meeting  about  9  o'clock ;  when  he  spoke  there  in 
the  calm  and  temperate  tone  which  characterized  his  remarks, 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  109 

announcing  that  he  had  no  purpose  of  incitement,  but  only  to  speak 
the  truth  as  he  apprehended  it  concerning  the  wage  conditions  of 
modern  society;  and  when  he  proposed  an  adjournment  to  Zepf's 
hall,  and  himself  left  the  meeting  with  his  family  and  friends  and 
went  to  Zepf's  saloon,  he  had  no  thought,  no  intimation  from  any 
source,  no  reason  whatever  to  believe  that  any  violence  was  con- 
templated by  any  person  at  the  Haymarket  meeting,  or  was  likely 
to  occur.  It  was  because  of  this  conscious  innocence  of  partic- 
ipation in,  complicity  with,  or  responsibility  for,  the  act  of  bomb- 
throwing  that  Mr.  Parsons  felt  he  could  properly  surrender  himself 
for  trial  and  be  reasonably  secure  of  a  vindication,  expecting  that 
under  the  safeguards  provided  by  the  law  an  impartial  jury  could 
be  secured. 

Beyond  the  testimony  above  outlined,  the  State  was  permitted 
to  introduce,  in  its  effort  to  make  out  a  case  against  Parsons, 
evidence  of  a  number  of  speeches  made  by  Parsons  during  a  long 
period  of  time  preceding  the  Haymarket  meeting,  and  extracts  from 
the  files  of  the  Alarm,  of  which  Parsons  was  the  editor ;  not  upon 
the  theory  that  any  of  these  things  bore  directly  upon,  or  had  im- 
mediate reference  to,  the  Haymarket  meeting,  or  the  act  at  that 
meeting  of  the  bomb-thrower,  but  upon  the  theory  that  they  fur- 
nished evidence  proper  to  be  considered  by  the  jury  as  tending  to 
establish  a  general  conspiracy  for  the  overthrow  of  the  existing 
order  of  society,  which  contemplated  such  meetings  as  that  at  the 
Haymarket,  and  such  acts  as  there  committed,  as  among  the 
things  which  might  be  done  in  furtherance  of  this  purpose. 

It  was  contended  in  behalf  of  the  defence  upon  the  trial  that 
such  testimony  was  not  legally  competent ;  that  in  the  absence  of 
testimony  showing  a  conspiracy  or  agreement  to  do  the  particular 
thing,  criminal  responsibility  for  which  was  sought  to  be  charged 
against  the  defendants,  it  was  necessary  to  show  by  credible 
evidence  that  the  act  complained  of  was  indubitably  committed  by 
one  of  the  conspirators,  not  that  it  might  possibly  have  been  com- 
mitted by  such  a  co-conspirator,  and  that  it  was  committed  by 
such  co-conspirator  in  furtherance  of  the  general  plan  to  which  it 
was  claimed  the  accused  were  committed.  In  other  words,  it  was 
contended  for  the  defence  as  follows  : 

1.  That  mere  participation  in  an  unlawful  assembly  or  design 
does  not  make  the  accused  responsible  for  the  independent  and 


110  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

unadvised  crime  of  some  other  participant  in  that  assembly  or 
design. 

2.  That  to  hold  the  accused  as  accessories  on  the  ground  of 
conspiracy  it  must  be  shown  by  credible  testimony,  beyond  rea- 
sonable doubt,  that  the  man  committing  the  crime  was  one  of  the 
conspirators. 

3.  That  it  must  further  be  shown  that  the  act  of  violence  com- 
mitted was  within  the  purview  of  the  conspiracy ;  in  other  words, 
that  the  conspiracy  provided  for  the  commission  of  the  particular 
act,  by  some  one  of  the  conspirators,  at  the  time  and  place  when 
and  where  it  was  done. 

4.  That  the  mere  fact  that  various  persons  have  a  common 
object  in  view,  or  set  before  themselves  a  common  purpose  for  their 
activity,  does  not  make  one  of  such  parties  responsible  for  the  un- 
advised act  of  another  party  committed  upon  the  independent 
volition  and  uninfluenced  resolve  of  that  other  party. 

5.  That  mere  general  advice,  by  speech  or  print,  to  revolution- 
ary or  violent  acts,  without  evidence  connecting  the  advice  with  the 
man  committing  the  offense  and  showing  that  he  was  influenced 
thereby  to  his  act,  is  not  sufficient  to  warrant  a  contraction  of  the 
speaker  as  an  accessory  to  the  crime.    That  the  law  on  this  point 
is,  as  stated  in  1  Wharton  Criminal  Law,  §  226,  note:  "Counseling, 
to  come  up  to  the  definition  [of  inciting  to  crime],  must  be  special." 
*  *  *   And  in  same  volume,  §  179 :  "What  human  Judge  can  deter- 
mine that  there  is  such  a  necessary  connection  between  one  man's 
advice  and  another  man's  action  as  to  make  the  former  the  cause 
of  the  latter?" 

And  as  a  corollary  of  these  positions  it  was  contended :  That 
before  the  lives  of  men  could  be  legally  adjudged  forfeited  as  the 
penalty  of  a  crime,  in  which  specific  crime  they  confessedly  had  no 
participation,  it  was  necessary,  in  justice  and  under  the  law,  to 
identify  the  party  committing  the  offense  in  such  manner  as  to 
establish,  by  credible  evidence  and  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt, 
his  consociation  with  the  accused,  and  that  in  the  doing  of  the  act 
he  was  but  carrying  out  his  preconcert  with  the  accused. 

It  is  believed  that  prior  to  the  trial  of  his  case  no  intelligent 
lawyer  could  have  been  found  anywhere  who  would  have  questioned 
the  soundness  of  the  above  positions.  It  is  substantially  admitted 
now,  the  world  over,  that  in  order  to  bring  about  the  conviction  of 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  Ill 

Mr.  Parsons  and  bis  associates  the  Court  was  asked  to,  and  did,  go 
much  further,  alike  in  the  admission  of  evidence,  upon  the  question 
of  the  qualification  of  jurors,  in  the  matter  of  its  instructions  in  lay- 
ing down  the  law  to  the  jury,  and  in  the  latitude  generally  allowed 
the  prosecution  in  its  effort  to  secure  a  conviction,  than  was  ever 
before  done  in  modern  jurisprudence.  In  other  words,  it  is  now 
admitted  generally  that  the  law  as  established  in  this  case  was  a 
modification  of  all  prior  adjudication  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the 
prosecution.  But  it  would  be  wholly  foreign  to  the  purpose  of  this 
sketch  to  go  into  any  elaborate  review  of  the  legal  aspects  of  the 
trial.  I  am  the  rather  called  upon  to  speak  as  to  how  Albert  E. 
Parsons  bore  his  part  in  these  affairs. 

The  verdict  of  the  jury  was  a  profound  and  universal  surprise. 
It  was  well  known  at  the  time  that  the  prosecution  had  no  ex- 
pectation of  securing  the  death  penalty  as  to  more  than  three  or 
four  of  the  accused— to-wit :  Spies,  Lingg,  Fischer,  and  Engel.  It 
was  generally  expected  that  Oscar  Neebe  would  be  acquitted,  as  it 
was  conceded  with  substantial  unanimity  that  the  State  had  made 
out  no  case  against  him.  And  it  was  believed  that  Parsons,  Fiel- 
den,  and  Schwab,  if  found  guilty  at  all,  would  receive  only  a  sen- 
tence of  imprisonment.  In  fact,  when  Mr.  Grinnell  was  closing  for 
the  prosecution,  almost  his  .last  remarks  to  the  jury  were  to  the 
effect  that  he  would  not  ask  the  death  sentence  as  to  Neebe,  and 
that  as  to  the  other  defendants  he  believed  that  there  were  grada- 
tions in  their  responsibility  and  guilt ;  and  that  he  would  place  the 
responsibility  and  guilt  of  the  defendants  in  the  following  order : 
Spies,  Lingg,  Fischer,  Engel,  Fielden,  Parsons,  Schwab.  (I  think  I 
have  the  "roll-call"  in  the  same  order  in  which  he  gave  it.)  The 
suggestion  was  regarded  by  those  who  heard  it  as  being  significant 
of  Mr.  Grinnell's  expectations  in  the  case,  and  as  to  his  views  of 
what  the  verdict  should  be ;  for  if  there  were  in  fact  gradations  in 
the  guilt  of  the  parties  named,  and  in  the  degree  of  their  responsi- 
bility, then  justice  required  that  there  should  also  be  gradations  in 
the  measure  of  their  punishment.  But  the  fierceness  of  popular 
hate,  which  was  carried  by  many  of  the  jurors  into  the  jury-room, 
and  which  seemed  to  fill  all  the  air  like  a  subtle  ether,  brooked  no 
discrimination  in  its  vengeful  treatment  of  the  accused.  All,  save 
only  Neebe,  who  was  protected  by  the  distinct  announcement  of  Mr. 
Grinnell  that  he  did  not  wish  a  death  sentence  as  to  him,  were  in- 


112  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

volved  without  discrimination  in  a  common  verdict  and  judgment 
by  the  jury. 

No  one  who  was  present  in  the  Court-room  on  that  August 
morning  when  this  verdict  was  announced  will  ever  forget  the  scene. 
The  public  was  excluded  from  the  room,  only  a  very  few  persons 
being  permitted  to  enter.  The  crowd  outeide  were  waiting  for  the 
news,  thronging  the  street  through  the  entire  block.  Not  a  man  of 
the  eight,  who  sat  in  the  prisoners'  chairs,  blanched  for  an  instant 
when  the  reading  of  the  verdict  took  place.  On  the  contrary,  a 
smile  that  had  in  it  something  of  the  suggestion  of  pity  fcr  the  over- 
wrought violence  of  hatred  that  could  make  such  a  verdict  possible, 
touched  for  a  moment  the  calm  and  quiet  faces  of  the  men  for  whom 
this  verdict  had  such  dire  import.  Among  them  all  none  was  calmer 
than  Parsons,  though  no  one  perhaps  was  more  surprised.  Every 
man  of  them  all  rose  to  the  emergency ;  and  not  even  when  the  wild 
cheer  of  the  crowd  outside  upon  the  announcement  of  the  verdict, 
sounding  like  the  snarling  roar  of  a  wild  beast  ravening  as  it  clutched 
its  prey,  reached  th.3  ears  of  the  accused,  with  all  its  horrid  suggest- 
ions of  implacable  and  blind  fury  and  resentment,  was  there  ap- 
parent in  the  face  of  any  one  of  the  eight  anything  betokening  malice 
or  a  purpose  of  crime. 

With  the  subsequent  history  of  the  case  the  readers  of  this 
article  are  doubtless  already  familiar ;  but  I  feel  that  there  is  spe- 
cial occasion  for  me  to  give  prominence  to  some  matters  that  were 
within  my  personal  knowledge,  occurring  during  the  last  days,  and 
after  the  announcement  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
of  its  refusal  to  interfere  upon  the  appeal  made  to  that  tribunal. 

It  was  then  known  that  the  only  possible  opportunity  for  a 
modification  of  the  sentence  of  the  accused  was  in  an  appeal  for 
the  exercise  of  executive  clemency.  I  knew  personally  that  there 
were  a  great  many  people  who,  while  upholding  the  general  features 
of  the  judgment,  yet  felt  that  it  was  inexpressibly  dreadful  that  this 
extreme  penalty  should  be  inflicted  upon  Parsons  in  view  of  his 
voluntarily  coming  to  the  bar  of  the  Court.  It  was  said  by  many 
that  it  had  never  been  known  that  even  by  a  drum-head  Court  Mar- 
tial the  death  sentence  was  inflicted  upon  an  enemy  who  voluntarily 
surrendered  himself,  coming  from  a  retreat  of  safety  to  place  his 
sword  in  the  hand  of  the  victor.  I  was  personally  advised  that 
i-pecial  (ffort  would  be  made  to  secure  the  commutation  of  Parsons' 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  113 

sentence,  owing  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his  case,  and  of 
course  I  was  very  anxious  to  save  out  of  the  wreck  whatever  of  life 
was  possible.  But  we  found  an  unexpected  obstacle  in  the  matter 
of  the  attitude  taken  by  Parsons  himself  as  to  any  appeal  in  his 
behalf  to  the  Governor.  He  positively  refused  to  sign  in  any  man- 
ner a  petition  for  the  exercise  of  executive  clemency,  which,  under 
the  constitution  and  the  statutes  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  is  pre- 
scribed as  a  condition  of  the  exercise  of  the  pardoning  power.  It 
became  apparent  very  early,  from  the  tone  of  the  press  and  in  vari- 
ous other  ways,  that  unless  Parsons  would  petition  for  himself 
nothing  would  be  done  in  his  case,  but  his  attitude  would  be  accepted 
as  an  excuse  for  charging  to  his  own  folly  what  else  might  be  con- 
sidered an  act  of  inexcusable  public  brutality.  Knowing  the  peril 
in  which  he  was  placing  himself,  1  went  personally  to  Parsons  on 
the  Tuesday  before  the  llth  of  November,  and  told  him  that  I  was 
going  to  Springfield  with  a  deputation  that  night  to  have  a  public 
audience  with  the  Governor  the  following  day  in  support  of  our  ap- 
plication for  the  exercise  of  clemency.  I  had  a  very  long  talk  with 
him,  the  last  of  many  preceding  conversations  of  like  purport, 
urging  him  to  sign  a  petition  which  1  had  prepared  to  be  presented 
to  the  Governor  in  his  behalf. 

I  told  Parsons,  in  the  course  of  our  conversation,  that  his  re- 
fusal to  sign  any  petition  was  likely  to  be  regarded,  by  those  who 
held  that  his  punishment  was  merited  and  was  demanded  for  the 
welfare  of  society,  but  who  might  be  disposed,  because  of  his  per- 
sonal conduct,  to  favor  interposition  in  his  behalf,  as  an  evidence 
of  perverseness  upon  his  part,  and  that  thus  the  effort  would  be 
made  to  charge  the  result  against  himself.  I  urged  him,  for  the 
sake  of  his  wife  and  his  babes,  to  sign  the  petition.  I  told  him  that 
I  believed  Gov.  Oglesby  was  favorably  disposed  in  his  case ;  and 
that  I  thought  in  justice  to  the  Governor  he  should  at  least  sign 
the  petition,  so  that  Gov.  Oglesby  might  have  that  technical 
compliance  with  the  law  which  was  so  likely  to  be  exacted  by  the 
public  sentiment  of  the  hour.  I  told  Parsons  plainly  that  I  believed 
if  he  refused  to  sign  any  petition  of  any  character  the  chances 
were  that  he  would  be  executed ;  while  on  the  other  hand  I  felt 
assured  that  if  1  could  lay  a  properly  phrased  petition  before  the 
executive,  public  opinion  would  justify  Gov.  Oglesby  in  commuting 
his  sentence.  I  went  still  further  and  urged  upon  him,  and  this 


114  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

was  the  argument  which  seemed  to  impress  him  most,  that  from 
Ms  own  standpoint  it  was  the  one  act  that  was  certainly  needed  in 
order  to  complete  his  indictment  against  the  system  of  law  and 
order  which  was  condemning  him  to  death ;  that  at  least  he  should 
leave  no  legal  excuse  for  the  refusal  to  extend  clemency  to  him. 
He  listened  patiently  to  all  I  said,  and  quietly  replied  in  substance 
to  me  thus : 

"Captain,  I  know  that  you  are  right.  I  know  that  if  I  should 
sign  this  application  for. pardon  my  sentence  would  be  commuted. 
No  longer  ago  than  last  Sunday  night  Melville  E.  Stone,  the  editor 
of  the  Daily  News,  spent  nearly  two  hours  in  my  cell,  urging  me  to 
sign  a  petition,  and  assuring  me  that  if  I  would  do  so  I  should 
have  his  influence  and  the  influence  of  his  paper  in  favor  of  the 
commutation  of  my  sentence ;  and  I  know  that  that  means  that  my 
sentence  would  be  commuted.  But  I  will  not  do  it.  My  mind  is 
firmly  and  irrevocably  made  up,  and  I  beg  you  to  urge  me  no 
further  upon  the  subject.  I  am  an  innocent  man — innocent  of 
this  offense  of  which  I  have  been  found  guilty  by  the  jury,  and  the 
world  knows  my  innocence.  If  I  am  to  be  executed  at  all  it  is  because 
I  am  an  Anarchist,  not  because  I  am  a  murderer ;  it  is  because 
of  what  I  have  taught  and  spoken  and  written  in  the  past,  and 
not  because  of  the  throwing  of  the  Haymarket  bomb.  I  can  afford 
to  be  hung  for  the  sake  of  the  ideas  I  hold  and  the  cause  I  have 
espoused  if  the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois  can  afford  to  hang  an 
innocent  man  who  voluntarily  placed  himself  in  their  power." 

I  paused  for  a  while,  at  a  loss  what  to  say.  I  know  that  my 
face  showed  something  of  the  pain  that  I  felt,  for  suddenly,  a  soft- 
ened expression  coming  over  his  face,  Parsons  added  words  like 
these : 

"I  will  tell  you,  Captain,  what  is  the  real  secret  of  my  position, 
but  in  confidence.  I  do  not  want  anything  said  about  it  until  after 
the  llth.  I  have  a  hope— mark  you,  it  is  a  very  faint  hope— but 
yet  I  do  hope  that  my  attitude  in  reference  to  this  matter  may 
result  in  the  saving  of  these  other  boys — Lingg,  Engel,  and 
Fischer.  Spies,  Fielden,  and  Schwab  have  already  signed  a  pe- 
tition for  clemency,  and  their  lives  are  safe.  But  the  public  are 
determined  to  have  victims.  And  if  I  should  now  separate  myself 
from  Lingg,  Engel,  and  Fischer,  and  sign  a  petition  upon  which 
the  Governor  could  commute  my  sentence,  I  know  that  it  would 


THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY.  115 

mean  absolute  doom  to  the  others — that  Lingg,  Engel,  and  Fischer 
would  inevitably  be  hung.  So  I  have  determined  to  make  their 
cause  and  their  fate  my  own.  I  know  the  chances  are  999  in 
1,000  that  I  will  swing  with  them;  that  there  isn't  one  chance  in 
a  thousand  of  my  saving  them ;  but  if  they  can  be  saved  at  all  it  is 
by  my  standing  with  them,  so  that  whatever  action  is  taken  in  my 
case  may  with  equal  propriety  be  taken  in  theirs.  I  will  not,  there- 
fore, do  anything  that  will  separate  me  from  them.  I  expect  that 
the  result  will  be  that  I  shall  hang  with  them,  but  I  am  ready." 

I  could  make  no  reply  to  such  an  argument — I  never  tried  to. 
I  knew  that  what  Parsons  said  was  true.  I  knew  that  if  anything 
in  the  world  could  save  the  three  who,  like  himself,  had  refused  to 
apply  for  executive  clemency,  it  would  be  the  fact  that  Parsons 
would  stand  with  them  and  share  their  fate.  I  knew,  too,  that  the 
chances  were  that  they  would  all  perish  together !  but  as  against 
a  man  calmly  facing  death,  and  putting  his  determination  upon 
such  exalted  grounds  of  self-sacrifice  and  of  faithfulness  to  the 
obligation  of  comradeship,  I  had  no  reply  to  make.  I  took  him  by 
the  hand,  looked  into  his  face,  and  said  to  him :  "Your  action  is 
worthy  of  you !"  and  came  away. 

It  fell  out  as  I  had  anticipated.  When  Gov.  Oglesby's  attention 
was  called  to  the  particular  circumstances  of  Parsons'  self-surren- 
der, and  to  the  evidence  showing  that  he  had  absolutely  no  knowl- 
edge whatever  of  any  violence  arranged  for  or  contemplated  at  the 
Haymarket  meeting,  and  consequently  no  participation  in  nor  legal 
responsibility  for  that  act,  under  the  theretofore  established  rules  of 
law,  the  Governor  asked  if  Parsons  had  signed  a  petition  as  re- 
quired by  the  law.  I  knew  what  that  meant ;  and  when,  on  Thurs- 
day morning  I  had  my  last  interview  with  Parsons  and  his  com- 
panions, occupying  but  a  few  minutes  in  each  case  (for  I  went 
again  to  Springfield  Thursday  night,  and  was  with  Gov.  Oglesby 
Friday  morning,  urging  a  vain  plea  for  a  reprieve  of  thirty  days, 
upon  trustworthy  assurances  from  New  York,  communicated  to  the 
Governor,  that  if  such  reprieve  were  granted  the  bomb-thrower 
would  be  produced,  and  it  would  be  shown  that  he  was  a  stranger 
to  the  accused,  and  that  they  had  no  complicity  in  nor  responsibility 
for  that  act),  I  mentioned  to  Parsons  the  question  of  Gov.  Oglesby, 
accompanying  it  with  the  suggestion  that  even  yet  if  he  would  sign 
a  petition  I  believed  we  could  save  his  life ;  but  I  had  no  heart  to 


116  THE  IMMOLATION  TO  AUTHORITY. 

press  upon  him  that  he  should  do  violence  to  the  noble  purpose 
which  he  had  formed;  and  when  he  said  to  me,  as  quietly  and 
simply  as  he  would  have  spoken  in  reference  to  some  matter  of  no 
consequence  to  him :  "I  can't  do  it,  Captain ;  I  am  ready  for  what- 
ever may  come ! "  I  only  shook  his  hand  again  and  turned  away. 
It  may  be  that  there  are  many  who  will  read  this  simple 
account,  and  will  see  in  the  attitude  and  sentiments  of  this  man 
nothing  to  admire,  nothing  heroic ;  but  there  are  others  who,  read- 
ing this  narrative,  will  better  understand  why  I  loved  this  man  and 
his  comrades,  who  were  all  kindred  spirits  with  himself.  He  was. 
of  such  material  as  heroes  are  made  of.  I  have  no  hesitation  in 
saying  that  Parsons'  action,  under  all  the  circumstances  of  his 
case,  was  as  heroic  as  any  chronicled  in  ancient  or  modern  annals. 
And  I  believe  that  the  day  will  yet  come  when  it  will  be  generally 
conceded  that  on  the  llth  of  November,  1887,  four  men  perished 
upon  the  scaffold  in  Cook  county  who  were  of  exalted  purpose  and 
of  noble  natures,  dying  because  of  their  steadfastness  to  their  own 
convictions  of  right,  their  loyalty  to  the  cause  of  the  weak  and 
of  the  oppressed  which  they  had  espoused,  their  zeal  in  behalf  of 
the  common  people,  their  devotion  to  their  fellow-men. 

WILLIAM  P.  BLACK. 
CHICAGO,  January  24,  1889. 


HAYMARKET  SPEECH.  117 


CHAPTER  III. 


PAKSONS'  HAYMAEKET  SPEECH. 

His  SPEECH  OF  MAY  4,  AS  EEDELIVERED  IN  TEE  COURT-ROOM,  BEFORE 
THE  JUDGE,  JURY,  AND  SPECTATORS  AUGUST  9,  1886,  AND  WHICH 
THE  CHICAGO  "TIMES"  DECLARED  TO  BE  THE  FINEST  SPEECH  OF  His 
LIFE,  GOING  "FROM  ELOQUENCE  TO  ORATORY,  FROM  ORATORY  TO 
LOGIC,  AND  FROM  LOGIC  TO  ARGUMENT." 

|N  June  9, 1886,  Mr.  Parsons  took  the  witness-stand  in  his  own 
defence  and  this  is  the  occasion  of  his  having  given  the  speech 
which  follows.  The  Times  said  of  the  speech : 
The  climax  in  the  Anarchist  trial  was  reached  yesterday.  Schwab,  Spies, 
and  Parsons  told  their  respective  stories  to  the  jury  from  the  witness-chair,  to 
a  spell-bound  audience  of  spectators,  an  amazed  jury,  and  a  surprised  Judge. 
*  *  *  Parsons  was  composed  and  eloquent.  *  *  *  His  brother,  Gen.  "W. 
H.  Parsons,  sat  with  eyes  fixed  upon  him  during  the  time  he  was  upon  the 
stand.  As  soon  as  Mr.  August  Spies  retired  Mr.  Parsons  took  the  stand,  and 
in  a  quiet,  deferential  tone  answered  the  questions  put  to  him  in  a  firm  voice, 
not  appearing  to  be  in  the  least  unnerved  by  his  peculiar  position.  At  length 
he  was  asked  to  give  the  substance  of  his  Haymarket  speech,  and  he  did  so, 
and  if  the  jury,  the  Court,  and  the  audience  have  been  entertained  since  the 
trial  began,  they  were  entertained  by  the  chief  agitator  of  the  Chicago 
Anarchists.  He  pulled  out  of  his  pocket  a  bundle  of  notes,  and  began  at  the 
jury  in  tones  which  betokened  that  the  speaker  was  primed  for  the  finest 
speech  of  his  life.  He  held  his  notes  in  his  left  hand,  and,  together  with  the 
swaying  of  his  body,  gesticulated  with  his  right  arm.  From  low,  measured 
tones  he  went  on  from  eloquence  to  oratory,  from  oratory  to  logic,  and  from 
logic  to  argument." 

CAPT.  BLACK:  "Now,  Mr.  Parsons,  going  back  to  the  meeting, 
retracing  our  steps  for  a  moment — will  you  tell  us,  please,  what  was 
the  substance  of  your  speech  that  night,  as  fully  as  you  can  re- 
member ?" 


118 


A.  R.  PARSONS 


"I  have  taken  some  notes  of  reference  since  then  to  refresh  my 
memory.  I  recollect  distinctly  of  mentioning  all  of  these  points,  but 
I  could  not  recall  them  seriatim  unless  I  put  them  on  paper,  and 

that  is  the  reason  I  have  done  so. 

t 

"When  I  was  introduced  I  looked  at  the  crowd  and  observed 
that  it  was  quite  a  large  crowd.  I  am  familiar  with  public  speak- 
ing and  with  crowds,  and  I  should  estimate  there  were  3,000  men 
present,  and  I  consider  myself  a  judge  of  such  matters.  The  street 
was  packed  from  sidewalk  to  sidewalk,  north  and  south  of  the- 
wagon,  but  especially  south  of  the  wagon,  for  a  considerable  dis- 
tance. I  faced  the  south.  I  first  called  the  attention  of  those 
present  to  the  evidences  of  discontent  among  the  working  classes, 
not  alone  of  Chicago,  not  alone  of  the  United  States,  but  of  the 
civilized  world,  and  I  asked  the  question,  if  these  evidences  of  dis- 
content, as  could  be  seen  in  strikes  and  lock-outs  and  boycotts,  were 
not  indications  that  there  was  something  radically  wrong  in  the 
existing  order  of  things  in  our  social  affairs.  I  then  alluded  to  the 
eight-hour  movement,  and  spoke  of  it  as  a  movement  designed  to 
give  employment  to  the  unemployed,  work  to  the  idle,  and  thereby 
bring  comfort  and  cheer  to  the  homes  of  the  destitute,  and  relieving 
the  unrelieved  and  wearisome  toil  of  those  who  worked  not  alone 
ten  hours,  but  twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  hours  a  day.  I  said 
that  the  eight-hour  movement  was  in  the  interests  of  civilization,  of 
prosperity,  of  the  public  welfare,  and  that  it  was  demanded  by 
every  interest  in  the  community,  and  that  I  was  glad  to  see  them 
assembled  on  that  occasion  to  give  their  voice  in  favor  of  the  adop- 
tion of  the  eight-hour  work-day.  I  then  referred  again  to  the  gen- 
eral condition  of  labor  throughout  the  country.  I  spoke  of  some  of 
my  travels  through  the  States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  where  I 
had  met  and  addressed  thousands  and  thousands  of  workingmen. 
I  told  of  the  Tuscarora  valley,  and  of  the  Hocking  valley,  and  of 
the  Monongahela  valley — among  the  miners  of  this  country,  where 
wages  averaged  24|  cents  a  day.  I  showed,  of  course,  these  were 
not  wages  they  received  while  at  work,  but  that  the  difficulty  was 
they  did  not  get  the  days'  work,  and  consequently  they  had  to 
sum  up  the  total  and  divide  it.  Throughout  the  year  it  amounted 
to  24£  cents  a  day.  I  asked  if  this  was  not  a  condition  of  affairs 
calculated  to  arouse  the  discontent  of  the  people,  and  to  make  them 
clamor  for  redress  and  relief.  I  pointed  to  the  fact  that  in  the  city 


HAYMAEKET  SPEECH.  119 

of  Pittsburgh  a  report  was  made  by,  I  think,  the  Superintendent  of 
Police  of  that  city,  stating  that  at  the  Bethel  home,  a  charitable 
institution  in  that  city,  from  January  1,  1884,  to  January  1,  1885, 
there  were  26,374  destitute  men — tramps,  American  sovereigns — 
who  applied  for  a  night's  lodging  and  a  morsel  of  food  at  one  estab- 
lishment alone  in  the  city  of  Pittsburgh.  I  referred,  of  course,  to 
many  other  places  and  similar  things,  showing  the  general  con- 
dition of  labor  in  the  country.  I  then  spoke  of  the  eight-hour 
movement — that  it  was  designed  to  bring  relief  to  these  men  and  to 
the  country.  I  thought  surely  there  was  nothing  in  it  to  excite  such 
hostility  on  the  part  of  employers  and  on  the  part  of  monopoly  and 
corporations  against  it  as  was  witnessed  in  different  parts  of  the 
country.  I  referred  to  the  refusal  of  the  corporations  and  monop- 
olists to  grant  and  concede  this  modest  request  of  the  working 
class,  and  their  attempts  to  defeat  it.  I  then  referred  to  the  fact 
that,  in  the  face  of  all  these  causes  producing  these  effects,  the  mo- 
nopolistic newspapers,  in  the  interests  of  corporations,  blamed  such 
men  as  I — blamed  the  so-called  agitators,  blamed  the  workingmen 
— for  these  evidences  of  discontent,  this  turmoil  and  confusion  and 
so-called  disorder.  I  called  the  attention  of  the  crowd  specifically 
to  that  fact — that  we  were  being  blamed  for  this  thing,  when,  on 
the  contrary,  it  was  evident  to  any  fair-minded  man  that  we  were 
simply  calling  the  attention  of  the  people  to  this  condition  of  things 
and  seeking  a  redress  for  it.  I  impressed  that  upon  the  crowd 
specifically,  and  I  remember  that  in  reponse  to  that  several  gentle- 
men spoke  up  loudly  and  said :  'Well,  we  need  a  good  many  just 
such  men  as  you  to  right  these  wrongs  and  to  arouse  the  people.' 

"I  spoke  of  the  compulsory  idleness  and  starvation  wages,  and 
how  these  things  drove  the  workingmen  to  desperation — drove  them 
to  commit  acts  for  which  they  ought  not  to  be  held  responsible ; 
that  they  were  the  creatures  of  circumstances,  and  that  this  con- 
dition of  things  was  the  fault,  not  of  the  workingmen,  but  of  those 
who  claimed  the  right  to  control  and  regulate  the  rights  of  the 
workingmen.  I  pointed  out  the  fact  that  monopoly,  in  its  course 
in  grinding  down  labor  in  this  country  and  in  refusing  to  concede 
anything  to  it — refusing  to  make  any  concessions  whatever — that 
in  persisting  in  such  course  it  was  creating  revolutionists,  and  if 
there  was  a  single  revolutionist  in  America  monopoly  and  corpor- 
ations were  directly  responsible  for  his  existence.  I  specifically 


120  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

called  attention  to  this  fact,  in  order  to  defend  myself  from  the 
charges  constantly  being  made  through  the  mouthpiece  of  monop- 
oly— the  capitalistic  press.  I  called  attention  in  this  connection 
to  the  Chicago  Times  and  other  newspapers.  I  called  the  attention 
of  the  working  people  that  night  to  the  strike  of  1877,  when  the 
Chicago  Times  declared  that  hand-grenades  ought  to  be  thrown 
among  the  striking  sailors,  who  were  then  on  a  strike  on  the  river 
wharves  in  this  city,  in  order  to  teach  them  a  lesson  and  that  other 
strikers  might  be  warned  by  their  fate.  I  said  that  the  Chicago 
Times  was  the  first  dynamiter  in  America,  and  as  the  mouth-piece 
of  monopoly  and  corporations  it  was  the  first  to  advocate  the  kill- 
ing of  people  when  they  protested  against  wrong  and  oppression.  I 
spoke  of  another  Chicago  paper  which  at  that  day  advocated  that 
when  bread  was  given  to  the  poor  strychnine  should  be  placed  on 
it.  I  also  called  attention  to  Frank  Leslie's  Illustrated  Paper,  which 
declared  in  an  editorial  that  the  American  toiler  must  be  driven  to 
his  task  either  by  the  slave-driver's  lash  or  the  immediate  prospect 
of  want.  I  spoke  of  the  New  York  Herald,  and  its  saying  that  lead 
should  be  given  to  any  tramp  who  should  come  around.  Whenever 
a  workingman,  thrown  out  of  employment  and  forced  to  wander 
from  place  to  place  in  search  of  work,  away  from  family  and  home, 
asked  for  a  crust  of  bread,  the  New  York  Herald  advised  those  to 
whom  he  applied  to  fill  him  with  lead  instead  of  bread.  I  called 
attention  to  what  Tom  Scott,  the  railway  monopolist,  said  during 
the  strike  of  1877:  'Give  them  the  rifle  diet,  and  see  how  they 
like  that  kind  of  diet.'  I  referred  to  Jay  Gould,  when  he  said  we 
would  shortly  have  a  monarchy  in  this  country,  and  to  a  similar 
statement  in  the  Indianapolis  Journal.  Then  I  referred  to  how  mo- 
nopoly was  putting  these  threats  into  practice.  They  not  only  used 
these  threats,  but  they  put  them  into  practice,  and  I  cited  East  St. 
Louis,  where  Jay  Gould  called  for  men  and  paid  them  $5  a  day  for 
firing  upon  harmless,  innocent,  unarmed  workingmen,  killing  nine 
of  them  and  one  woman  in  cold-blooded  murder.  1  referred  to  the 
Saginaw  valley,  where  the  militia  was  used  to  put  down  strikes.  I 
referred  to  Lemont,  111.,  where  defenceless  and  innocent  citizens 
and  their  town  were  invaded  by  the  militia  of  the  State  of  Illinois, 
and  without  any  pretext  men,  women,  and  children  were  fired  upon 
and  slaughtered  in  cold  blood.  I  referred  to  the  McCormick  strike 
on  the  previous  day,  and  denounced  the  action  of  the  police  on  that 


HAYMAEKET    DIAGRAM. 


w 


H 

W 
H 

3 

H 

02 


SPEAKERS. 


DESPLAINES 


STREET. 


W 

PH 
Hi 
O 

Q 


A. — Where  the  bomb  was  thrown. 
B. — Where  the  bomb  exploded. 
C.— Zepf's  Hall. 


. 


HAYMARKET  SPEECH.  121 

occassion  as  an  outrage.  I  asked  the  workingmen  if  these  were  not 
facts,  and  if  monopolies  and  corporations  were  not  responsible  for 
them,  and  if  they  were  not  driving  the  people  into  this  condition  of 
things.  And  then  I  used  some  words  or  some  phrase  in  connection 
with  the  use  of  the  military  and  the  police  and  the  Pinkerton  thugs 
to  shoot  down  workingmen,  to  drive  them  back  into  submission  and 
starvation  wages.  I  then  referred  to  a  Chicago  paper  of  the  day 
before,  to  which  my  attention  had  been  called  on  Tuesday  after- 
noon. In  an  editorial  it  asserted  that  Parsons  and  Spies  incited 
trouble  at  McCormick's,  and  ought  to  be  lynched  and  driven  out  of 
the  city.  I  was  away  at  Cincinnati  at  the  time.  I  called  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  newspapers  were  wickedly  exciting  the  people 
against  the  workingmen.  I  denied  the  newspaper  charge  that  we 
were  sneaks  and  cowards,  and  defied  them  to  run  us  out  of  the  city. 
I  pointed  to  the  fact  that  the  capitalistic  papers  were  the  subsidized 
agents  and  organs  of  monopoly,  and  that  they  held  stocks  and 
bonds  in  corporations  and  railroads,  and  that  no  man  could  be 
elected  an  Alderman  of  this  city  unless  he  had  the  sanction  of  some 
of  the  corporations  and  monopolies  of  this  city.  Then  I  said :  'I 
am  not  here,  fellow-workmen,  for  the  purpose  of  inciting  anybody, 
but  to  tell  the  truth,  and  to  state  the  facts  as  they  actually  exist, 
though  it  should  cost  me  my  life  in  doing  it.'  I  then  referred  to  the 
Cincinnati  demonstration,  at  which  I  was  present  the  Sunday  pre- 
vious. I  said  that  the  organization  of  workingmen  in  that  city — the 
trades  unions  and  other  organizations — had  a  grand  street  parade 
and  picnic.  They  sent  for  me  to  go  down  there  and  address  them.  It 
was  an  eight-hour  demonstration.  I  attended  on  that  occasion  and 
spoke  to  them.  1  referred  to  the  fact  that  they  turned  out  in  thou- 
sands and  that  they  marched  with  Winchester  rifles,  two  or  three 
companies  of  them.  I  supposed  there  were  about  two  hundred 
men  at  the  head  of  the  column,  the  Cincinnati  Kifle  Union.  I  said 
that  at  the  head  of  the  procession  they  bore  the  red  flag — the  red 
flag  of  liberty,  faternity,  equality,  and  labor  all  over  the  world — 
the  red  flag,  the  emancipator  of  labor.  I  pointed  out  that  every 
other  flag  repudiated  the  workingman,  outlawed  the  workingman, 
and  that  he  had  no  shield  and  no  flag  but  the  red  one.  I  then  re- 
ferred to  our  country,  and  to  men  saying  this  was  a  movement  of 
foreigners,  and  so  on.  I  pointed  out  the  fact  that  the  desire  for 
right  and  the  thirst  for  liberty  and  for  justice  was  not  a  foreign 


122  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

affair  at  all ;  it  was  one  \vbich  concerned  Americans  as  well  as  for- 
eigners, and  that  patriotism  was  a  humbug  in  this  connection ;  that 
it  was  used  to  separate  the  people,  to  divide  them,  and  to  antagon- 
ize them  against  each  other ;  that  the  Irish  were  separated  and 
their  national  feeling  was  kept  alive  as  against  an  Englishman  in 
order  that  the  exploiters  and  depredators  upon  them  might  more 
easily  make  them  victims  and  use  them  as  their  tools.  I  referred 
in  that  connection  to  land  monopoly  and  showed  how  the  farms  of 
this  country  were  being  driven  into  land  tenures  like  those  of 
Europe.  I  called  attention  to  an  article  which  appeared  in  the 
North  American  Review  last  December,  which  I  think  was  by  an 
American  statistician  of  this  country,  in  which  it  was  stated  that 
over  $350,000,000  in  mortgages  were  held  upon  farms  west  of  the 
Alleghanies.  I  stated  that  over  50  per  cent.,  perhaps  two-thirds, 
of  the  farms  in  the  States  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  and  Michigan  were 
under  mortgage,  and  that  monopoly  was  making  it  impossible  for 
the  toilers  to  pay  for  these  farms,  and  that  they  were  breaking  them 
up,  forcing  them  to  become  tenants,  and  instituting  the  European 
system  in  this  country.  I  said  I  did  not  regard  that  as  a  question 
of  patriotism,  nor  a  foreign  question,  but  an  American  question 
concerning  Americans.  I  referred  to  the  banking  monopoly  of  the 
country,  by  which  a  few  men  are  empowered  to  make  money  scarce 
in  order  that  they  may  control  markets,  run  corners  on  the  differ- 
ent mediums  of  exchange,  and  produce  a  panic  in  the  country  by 
making  money  scarce.  They  made  the  price  of  articles  dear,  threw 
labor  out  of  employment,  and  brought  on  bankruptcy.  I  said  that 
monopoly  owned  labor  and  employed  its  armed  hirelings  to  sub- 
jugate the  people.  'In  the  light  of  these  facts  and  of  your  inalien- 
able right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,'  I  said,  'it 
behooves  you,  as  you  love  your  wives  and  children,  if  you  would 
not  see  them  perish  with  want  and  hunger,  yourselves  killed  or  cut 
down  like  dogs  in  the  streets — Americans,  as  you  love  liberty  and 
independence,  arm !  arm  yourselves !'  A  voice  then  said  to  me, 
'We  are  ready  now.'  I  did  not  understand  exactly  what  the  gentle- 
man said,  but  I  made  that  reply,  as  has  been  testified  to  by  many 
here.  I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States  gave  to  every  man  the  right  to  keep  and  bear  arms, 
but  monopoly  was  seeking  to  deprive  the  citizen  of  that  right.  I 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  constitution  guaranted  us  the 


HAYMARKET  SPEECH.  123 

right  of  free  speech,  of  free  press,  and  of  unmolested  assembly,  but- 
that  corporations  and  monopoly,  by  paid-for  decisions  of  Courts, 
had  trampled  these  rights  under  foot,  or  were  attempting  to  do  so. 
I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  was  in  the  hands  of  the  money  power,  and  that  from  this 
fact — the  sway  of  this  money  power — it  was  almost  impossible  for 
a  poor  man  to  get  justice  in  a  court  of  law ;  that  law  was  for  sale, 
just  like  bread ;  if  you  had  no  money  you  could  get  no  bread,  and 
without  money  you  could  get  no  justice;  that  justice  was  almost 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  poor,  and  that  the  poor  were  made 
poor  and  kept  poor  by  the  grinding  processes  of  the  corporations 
and  monopolies.  I  then  called  attention  to  Socialism,  and  ex- 
plained what  it  was.  I  gave  them  Webster's  definition  of  it — that 
it  meant  a  more  equitable  arrangement  of  society,  a  more  just  and 
equitable  arrangement  of  social  affairs  ;  that  there  was  nothing  in 
the  word  or  in  the  purposes  of  Socialism  for  anybody  to  become 
alarmed  at.  On  the  contrary,  it  should  be  hailed  with  delight  by 
all,  as  it  was  designed  to  make  all  happy  and.  prosperous.  I  then 
spoke  in  this  connection  of  the  wage  system  of  industry,  and  showed 
that  the  wage  system  of  industry  was  a  despotism,  inherently  and 
necessarily  so,  because  under  it  the  wage-worker  is  forced  and  com- 
pelled to  work  on  such  conditions  and  at  such  terms  as  the  em- 
ployers of  labor  may  see  fit  to  dictate  to  him.  This  I  defined  to  be 
slavery,  hence  I  said  they  were  wage-slaves,  and  that  the  wage 
system  was  what  Socialism  proposed  to  displace.  I  then  showed 
the  power  that  the  wage  system  gave  to  the  employing  class  by  the 
lock-out,  the  black-list,  and  the  discharge ;  that  I  myself  had  been 
black-listed  because  I  exercised  my  right  of  free  speech  as  an  Amer- 
ican, because  I  saw  fit  to  be  a  member  of  a  labor  organization ; 
that  I  had  been  deprived  repeatedly  of  my  bread  for  that  reason  by 
my  employer.  I  then  called  attention  to  the  United  States  census 
for  the  year  1880,  and  I  showed  that  the  returns  made  there — 
statistically  gotten  up  by  a  Eepublican  administration — these 
returns  showed  that  85  cents  from  every  dollar  produced  went  to 
the  profit-taking  classes,  and  that  15  cents  was  the  average  sum 
received  by  the  producing  class  for  having  produced  the  whole  dol- 
lar. I  said  that  this  was  wrong,  and  that  in  the  face  of  such  a  con- 
dition of  things  we  could  expect  nothing  but  poverty,  destitution, 
want,  and  misery.  I  showed  how,  under  this  system,  the  work- 


124  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

ingmen  of  the  United  States  were  really  doing  ten  hours'  work  for 
two  hours'  pay ;  that  the  employers  say  to  the  men :  'You  want 
to  work  only  eight  hours.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  we  must  give 
you  ten  hours'  pay  for  eight  hours'  work  ?'  I  said :  'Gentlemen, 
fellow-workmen,  let  us  answer  these  men  and  say,  and  prove  to 
them  by  the  official  statistics  of  the  United  States  census,  that  we 
are  receiving  now  but  two  hours'  pay  for  ten  hours'  work;  that 
that  is  what  the  wages  of  the  country  on  the  average  represent.  I 
spoke  of  corporations  crowding  the  workingmen  to  the  wall,  and 
summed  it  up  in  some  such  words  as  these :  'Now,  for  years  past 
the  Associated  Press,  manipulated  by  Jay  Gould  and  other  traitors 
to  the  Republic,  and  their  infamous  minions,  have  been  sowing  the 
seeds  of  revolution.'  These  seeds,  I  thought,  could  be  summarized 
about  as  follows : 

"To  deprive  labor  of  the  ballot. 

"To  substitute  a  Monarchy  for  the  Republic. 

"To  rob  labor  and  then  make  poverty  a  crime. 

"To  deprive  small  farmers  of  their  land,  and  then  convert  them 
into  serfs  to  serve  a  huge  landlordism. 

"To  teach  labor  that  bread  and  water  are  all  that  it  needs. 

"To  throw  bombs  into  crowds  of  workingmen  who  were  oppossed 
to  laboring  for  starvation  wages. 

"To  take  the  ballot  by  force  of  arms  from  the  majority  when  it 
is  used  against  the  interests  of  corporations  and  capital. 

"To  put  strychnine  upon  the  bread  of  the  poor. 

"To  hang  workingmen  by  mobs  in  the  absence  of  testimony  to 
legally  convict  them. 

"To  drive  the  poor  working  classes  into  open  mutiny  against 
the  laws,  in  order  to  secure  their  conviction  and  punishment  after- 
ward. 

"These  threats  and  diabolical  teachings,!  said,  had  been  openly 
and  boldly  uttered  by  the  great  conspiracy — the  solid  Associated 
Press  and  monopolies  of  this  country — for  years,  against  the  liber- 
ties of  the  poor,  and  the  workingman  of  America  was  as  sensitive 
to  the  wrongs  imposed  upon  him  as  would  be  the  possessor  of  mill- 
ions. I  said  that  this  was  the  seed  from  which  had  sprung  the 
labor  movement,  and  it  was  as  natural  as  cause  and  effect.  The 
workingmen  present  appeared  to  be  very  much  interested.  I  never 
saw  a  more  quiet,  orderly,  interested  gathering  of  men — and  I  have 


HAYMARKET  SPEECH.  125 

spoken  to  a  great  many  in  my  life — than  was  present  on  that  occa- 
sion. 

"I  called  their  attention  to  the  fact  that  labor  paid  for  every- 
thing—paid all  the  expenses  of  Government,  of  the  police,  of  the 
armies,  of  legislators,  of  Congressmen,  of  Judges— paid  everything. 
Labor  paid  it  all.  That  I,  as  a  tenant — I  used  my  own  case  as  an 
illustration — says  I :  'Now,  the  landlord  claims  that  he  pays  the 
taxes.  What  are  the  facts  ?  When  I  pay  him  my  rent  I  in  fact 
pay  the  taxes.  He  claims  that  he  makes  all  the  repairs  on  the 
house,  and  paints  it  up,  and  does  all  such  things.  He  does  not  do 
anything  of  the  kind.  He  is  simply  my  agent  to  look  after  these 
things,  and  I,  as  his  tenant,  pay  for  it  all.  So  it  is  with  all  tenants.' 
I  said  that  labor  bears  all  the  burdens  but  derives  few  of  the  bene- 
fits of  our  present  civilization.  I  referred  to  the  fact  that  it  was 
through  these  methods  that  the  working  people,  who  produced  all 
the  wealth,  were  kept  poor,  and  being  poor  they  were  ignorant ;  that 
our  school  teachers  had  yet  to  learn  the  fact  that  the  great  need  of 
the  people  was  more  material  force  before  it  would  be  possible  for 
them  to  become  amenable  to  the  influences  of  educational  forces ; 
that  ignorance  was  the  result  of  poverty ;  that  intemperance  was 
the  result  of  poverty,  and  for  every  man  who  was  poor  because  he 
drank  I  could  show  twenty  men  who  drank  because  they  were  poor. 
I  said  that  this  poverty,  this  discord,  this  commotion  in  the  civil- 
ized world  was  because  of  the  disease,  the  cramming  of  people  away 
into  hovels  and  dens  unfit  for  animals  to  live  in ;  it  was  the  cause 
of  the  death  of  the  young,  of  old  age  coming  upon  middle  age ;  that 
it  was  the  cause  of  crime ;  that  poverty  was  at  the  root  and  bottom 
of  war,  of  discord,  and  of  strife,  and  that  this  poverty  was  an  arti- 
ficial, unnatural  poverty  which  Socialism  proposed  to  remedy. 

"1  was  at  this  time,  as  you  understand,  gentlemen,  making  a 
speech  for  Socialism.  I  had  been  talking  especially  for  Socialism. 
I  then  spoke  as  a  Trades-Unionist.  I  am  a  member  of  the  Printers' 
Union  and  of  the  Knights  of  Labor.  I  said  that  these  organizations 
differed  somewhat  with  Socialism  in  that  they  hoped  to  receive 
and  obtain  redress  within  the  present  system,  but  that  was  not  pos- 
sible, in  my  belief ;  that  a  study  of  social  affairs  and  of  historical 
development  had  taught  me  that  the  system  itself  was  at  fault,  and 
that  as  long  as  the  cause  remained  the  effects  would  be  felt ;  that 
every  trades  union,  every  assembly  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  every 


126  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

organization  of  workingmen  had  for  its  ultimate  end — let  its  course 
be  what  it  might — the  emancipation  of  labor  from  economic  de- 
pendence, and, whether  they  sought  it  or  not,  events  and  the  develop- 
ments of  this  existing  wage  system  would  of  necessity  force  or  drive 
these  men  into  Socialism  as  the  only  saver,  and  the  only  means  by 
"which  they  could  live — that  they  could  exist  in  the  end  in  no  other 
way.  If  I  remember  rightly  I  then  said  that  strikes  were  attempts 
to  right  these  wrongs  on  the  part  of  the  unions  and  the  Knights  of 
Labor ;  that  I  did  not  believe  in  strikes ;  I  did  not  believe  that  re- 
dress could  be  had  by  that  method ;  that  the  power  was  in  the 
liands  of  the  employer  to  refuse ;  that  if  the  men  went  on  a  strike 
the  employer  could  meet  the  strike  with  a  lock-out,  and  could  keep 
them  out  until  they  were  so  hungry  that  they  would  through  their 
destitution  be  compelled  to  return  and  accept  the  terms  of  the  em- 
ployer ;  therefore,  strikes  must  of  necessity  fail — as  a  general  thing. 
I  called  attention  to  the  'scabs,'  and  said  that  the  Unionist  made 
war  on  the  scabs.  'Now,'  says  I,  'here  is  the  distinction  between 
a  Socialist  and  a  Trade-Unionist.  The  Unionist  fights  the  scab. 
What  is  a  scab  ?  As  a  general  thing,  a  man  who,  being  out  of  em- 
ployment and  destitute,  is  driven  by  necessity  to  go  to  work  in  some 
other  man's  place  at  less  wages  than  has  previously  been  paid.  He 
is  at  once  denounced  as  a  scab  by  the  Unionist,  and  war  is  made 
upon  him.  Now,  Socialists  don't  do  this ;  they  regard  these  men 
us  the  victims  of  a  false  system  and  to  be  pitied.  The  scabs  might 
be  compared  to  fleas  on  a  dog.  The  Unionist  wants  to  kill  the  fleas, 
but  the  Socialists  would  kill  the  dog ;  that  dog  is  the  wage-system 
of  slavery. 

"I  then  pointed  to  the  ballot — how  we  were  swindled  at  the 
ballot-box  and  defrauded  and  cheated,  how  we  were  bulldozed  and 
intimidated  and  bribed  and  corrupted — yes,  corrupted  by  the  very 
money  that  had  been  stolen  from  us.  Men  would  come  to  us  when 
we  were  poor  and  give  us  bread  money  if  we  would  vote  their  ticket* 
and  we  often  did  it  through  necessity ;  and  for  these  and  other 
reasons,  through  this  intimidation,  bribery,  and  corruption,  the 
workingmen  had  but  little  to  expect  from  the  ballot.  I  said  we  had 
petitioned  and  passed  resolutions,  and  had  done  everything  in  our 
power  for  redress,  but  there  had  been  no  relief  and  no  redress ;  in 
fact,  there  was  a  rebuff  on  every  occasion.  I  then  said  to  them : 
'Gentlemen,  Socialism  means  the  free  association  of  the  people  for 


HAYMAKKET  SPEECH.  127 

the  purposes  of  production  and  consumption— in  other  words,  uni- 
versal co-operation.  This  is  the  sum  total  of  Socialism,  and  the 
only  solution  of  the  present  difficulties  between  capital  and  labor.' 
I  said  that  monopoly  and  corporation  had  formed  a  gigantic  con- 
spiracy against  the  working  classes. 

"I  then  called  upon  them  to  unite,  to  organize,  to  make  every 
endeavor  to  obtain  eight  hours ;  that  the  eight-hour  movement  meant 
a  peaceful  solution  of  the  labor  trouble ;  that  if  the  employers  in  this 
and  all  other  countries  would  concede  this  demand  it  meant  peace, 
if  they  refused  it  meant  war,  not  by  the  working  classes,  not  by 
laborers,  but  by  monopolists  and  corporations  upon  the  lives,  liberty 
and  happiness  of  the  working  classes.  I  said  that  the  Government, 
in  the  hands  of  corporations  and  monopoly,  deprived  the  laborers 
of  their  labor  product,  of  their  right  to  live,  and  was  driving 
labor  into  open  revolt  and  forcing  people  to  defend  themselves  and 
to  protect  and  maintain  their  right  to  self-preservation.  I  said  the 
monopoly  conspiracy  originated  in  the  great 'railroad  strike  of 
1877 ;  that  this  conspiracy  since  that  time  had  proposed  to  use 
force,  and  that  they  had  used  force.  Vanderbilt  said :  '  The  public 
be  damned.'  The  New  York  World  and  other  papers  had  said  that 
the  American  must  be  contented  with  the  wages  he  received,  and 
not  expect  any  more  wages  than  his  European  brother,  and  be  con- 
tented with  that  station  in  life  to  which  it  had  pleased  God  to  call 
him.  I  then  appealed  to  them  to  defend  themselves,  their  rights, 
and  their  liberties — to  combine,  to  unite,  for  in  union  there  was 
strength.  That,  gentlemen,  was  the  substance  of  my  hour's  speech 
at  the  Haymarket." 


128  LETTER  FROM  W.  A.  FOSTER. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


LETTEE  FEOM  ATTORNEY  W.  A.  FOSTEE. 

SOME  OF  THE  PRINCIPAL  ERRORS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  TRIAL  POINTED 
OUT — IF  THE  OBJECT  OF  THE  TRIAL  WAS  TO  OBTAIN  JUSTICE,  THEN 
SURELY  TO  TRY  THE  EIGHT  DEFENDANTS  AT  ONE  AND  THE  SAME 
TIME  WAS  A  GRIEVOUS  MISTAKE — THE  ADMISSION  IN  EVIDENCE  OF 
HERR  HOST'S  BOOK  NOT  ONLY  A  MISTAKE,  BUT  AN  EXCUSE  FOR 
OTHER  MISTAKES. 


ffi 


S.  LUCY  E.  PARSONS— Dear  Madam: 

In  compliance  with  your  request  that  I  specify  some  of 
the  errors  connected  with  the  late  trial  of  the  so-called 
Anarchists'  case,  I  would  say  that  I  think  Judge  Mulkey  did  not 
mis-state  the  facts  when,  upon  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court 
on  appeal  being  filed,  he  stated  from  the  bench :  "I  do  not  wish  to 
be  understood  as  holding  that  the  record  is  free  from  error,  for  I  do 
not  think  it  is;"  but  I  do  disagree  with  the  learned  Judge  in  his 
further  statement  when  on  the  same  occasion  he  said :  "I  am  never- 
theless of  opinion  that  none  of  the  errors  complained  of  are  of  so 
serious  a  character  as  to  require  a  reversal  of  the  judgment." 

I  have  long  been  impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  prosecution 
of  criminal  cases  should  be  conducted  with  absolute  fairness  on 
the  part  of  the  people,  by  an  absolutely  impartial  jury,  unin- 
fluenced by  popular  demands  or  prejudice ;  that  no  effort  should  be 
made  to  bring  about  a  conviction  not  warranted  by  a  full  con- 
sideration of  all  the  facts ;  and  that  under  no  circumstances  should 
the  trial  take  place  during  an  inflamed  state  of  the  public  mind. 

The  public,  after  due  consideration  of  any  matter  of  great 
interest  to  the  people,  is  usually  just  in  its  conclusions ;  but  im- 


LETTER  FROM  W.  A.  FOSTER.  129 

mediately  following  the  commission  of  a  heinous  crime  it  is  fre- 
quently only  necessary  to  point  out  the  supposed  culprit  to  cause 
the  public,  at  other  times  law-abiding,  to  become  willing  to  violate 
all  law  and  commit  cruel  injustice. 

It  is  further  true  that  when  a  trial  is  had  in  the  midst  of  a 
community  excited  by  horror  of  the  crime  committed,  and  so  soon 
after  its  commission  that  reason  has  not  had  time  to  resume  its 
sway,  the  practical  result  is,  not  infrequently,  to  commit,  under 
judicial  sanction,  the  same  wrong  at  other  times  perpetrated  by 
mob  violence. 

I  have  always  felt  that  the  trial  of  the  Anarchists'  case  was 
held  far  too  soon  after  the  Haymarket  horror,  and  entirely  too  near 
the  home  of  the  families  of  its  unfortunate  victims. 

Another  mistake  on  the  part  of  your  husband  was  that  he  sub- 
mitted himself  to  a  trial  in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  possible  ex- 
citement, when  he  was  at  a  safe  place,  and  could  as  well  have 
waited  until  public  reason  had  reasserted  itself.  Had  he  done  so 
he  would  to-day  be  a  free  man.  No  second  trial  could  ever  have 
been  had.  It  was  only  those  caught  within  the  meshes  of  the  net 
of  the  first  trial  that  must  suffer ;  but  woe  unto  all  those  ensnared 
by  that  first  terrible  drag ! 

It  has  been  urged  that  it  was  the  duty  of  A.  E.  Parsons  to 
stand  by  his  friends  in  adversity,  and  that  it  was  manly  for  him  to 
return  to  the  trial.  I  do  not  believe  that  manhood  demands  of  any 
one  that  he  submit  himself  to  a  decision  warped  by  prejudice  and 
wrought  by  passion.  Eather  should  he  bide  his  time,  and,  when  the 
clouds  of  excitement  and  anger  have  rolled  by,  and  then  only,  true 
bravery  requires  that  an  investigation  of  the  charge  against  him  be 
invited  by  the  accused.  Under  the  circumstances  surrounding  the 
trial,  for  a  man  to  voluntarily  place  himself  in  the  prisoners'  dock 
was  equivalent  to  saying  "I  am  willing  to  die  for  Anarchy,"  and, 
not  being  an  Anarchist  myself,  I  cannot  but  consider  such  an  act 
an  inexcusable  mistake. 

Where  persons  jointly  accused  of  crime  are  in  many  respects 
disconnected  with  each  other,  and  some  of  them  almost  entire 
strangers  to  others  of  their  no-defendants,  it  very  often  occurs  that 
much  testimony  is  competent  as  against  one  or  more  with  which 
the  others  have  not  the  slightest  connection.  Such  testimony  is 
admitted  as  against  one  or  more,  but  not  as  to  the  other  defendants ; 


130  LETTER  FROM  W.  A.  FOSTER. 

and  so,  during  a  long  trial,  there  is  evidence  introduced  as  against 
each  defendant,  not  competent  as  against  the  others  jointly  tried; 
and  the  violent  presumption  of  the  law  is  that  the  jury — rarely,  as 
all  are  aware,  representing  the  highest  type  of  intelligence — will 
apply  the  evidence  where  it  belongs  according  to  the  cold  prin- 
ciples of  law ;  the  result  being  usually,  as  every  observant  person 
knows,  that  the  whole  burden  of  the  evidence  is  charged  to  all  of  the 
•defendants,  and  if,  as  a  whole,  it  warrants  conviction,  all  must 
•suffer  punishment.  In  all  such  cases  there  can  be  no  justice  ex- 
•cept  by  granting  separate  trials,  which,  in  this  State,  is  a  matter  of 
•discretion  with  the  trial  judge.  If  the  object  of  the  trial  in  the 
Anarchists'  case  was  to  obtain  justice,  then  surely  to  try  all  the 
eight  defendants  at  one  and  the  same  time  was  a  grievous  mistake. 

I  have  so  far  only  referred  to  the  mistakes  committed  previous 
to  the  trial.  Were  I  to  attempt  to  go  through  the  record  of  the 
case  and  point  out  what  I  consider  errors,  I  would  go  far  beyond 
what  you  desire  in  this  communication,  which  must  necessarily  be 
brief.  One  of  the  most  flagrant  errors  connected  with  the  trial  was 
the  introdution  of  Herr  Host's  book  on  Modern  Warfare  *  against 
each  and  all  of  the  defendants.  I  regard  Host's  book  as  one  of  the 
most  infamous  publications  I  ever  saw.  To  introduce  this  book  and 
read  it  to  the  jury,  as  was  done  in  this  case,  could  not  fail  to  create 
the  strongest  prejudice,  not  only  against  Most,  who  was  not  on 
trial  (and  he  may  thank  Heaven  he  was  not !),  but  against  all  who 
to  any  extent  whatever  shared  his  beliefs. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  Host's  book  was  printed  only  in  the 
"German  language,  and  no  evidence  was  or  could  be  produced  to  prove 
that  it  had  ever  been  read  by  any  of  the  defendants.  It  was  adver- 
tised in  theArbeiter-Zeitung,  and  sold  at  picnics.  It  was  not  sold  by 
any  of  the  defendants ;  it  was  not  bought  by  them,  so  far  as  the  evi- 
dence showed.  If  it  had  ever  been  read  by  them,  no  one  seemed  to 
have  found  it  out ;  but  it  did  appear  that  it  had  never  been  pub- 
lished in  the  English  language,  and  as  two,  at  least,  of  the  defend- 
ants, Fielden  and  Parsons,  could  not  read  German,  it  is  safe  to  con- 
clude that  they,  at  least,  had  never  read  the  book,  but  they  must 
suffer  with  the  rest  the  effect  of  its  introduction. 

Not  only  was  the  admission  in  evidence  of  Host's  book  a  mis- 


*  The  book  here  refered  to  is  almost  exclusively  compiled  from   the  records  of  the 
police  department  of  Vienna. 


LETTER  FROM  W.  A.  FOSTER.  131 

take,  but  it  was  an  excuse  for  other  mistakes.  The  book  described 
a  can  or  jar  for  spreading  conflagrations,  and  it  happened  that  some 
weeks  after  the  defendants  were  arrested  and  safely  lodged  in  jail, 
some  boys  found  tin  cans  under  a  sidewalk  about  three  miles  from 
the  Haymarket.  The  cans  were  brought  into  Court  and  offered  in 
evidence  as  against  all  of  the  defendants — for  what  legitimate  end 
I  could  never  understand.  The  Court,  however,  looked  into  Herr 
Host's  book,  and  there  found  that  something  similar  was  described, 
and  the  cans  were  admitted  and  the  jury  required  to  handle  and 
smell  of  them,  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  prosecution.  This 
seemed  to  me  to  be  introducing  immaterial  evidence,  and  relying  as 
a  basis  for  so  doing  upon  immaterial  testimony  already  introduced. 

I  might  go  on,  almost  ad  infinitum,  pointing  out  what  I  regard 
as  mistakes  of  the  trial,  but  to  do  so  would  take  up  by  far  too 
much  space  in  your  proposed  publication.  As  I  have  stated,  I  am 
not  an  Anarchist,  nor  in  any  degree  in  sympathy  with  the  doctrines 
advocated  by  Anarchists.  My  denunciation  of  these  doctrines,  in 
my  argument  to  the  jury  on  the  trial,  cost  me  my  connection  with 
the  case ;  yet  I  cannot  help  believing  that  the  wholesale  conviction 
and  extreme  punishment  meted  out  to  the  eight  accused  men,  who, 
for  two  months,  were  subjected  to  what  should  have  been  a  "fair 
and  impartial  trial,"  was,  in  truth,  the  result  of  an  exaggerated  and 
excited  condition  of  public  sentiment. 

Very  Eespectfully  "Yours, 

W.  A.  FOSTER. 

CHICAGO,  111.,  October  16,  1888. 


132  WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSORY. 


CHAPTER  V. 


WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSOEY  ? 

LEONARD  SWETT  QUOTES  FROM  "WHARTON'S  CRIMINAL  LAW"  AND  CLEAR- 
LY POINTS  OUT  WHAT  MUST  BE  PROVEN  TO  SECURE  A  CONVICTION 
AS  ACCESSORY  BEFORE  THE  FACT — "WHAT  HUMAN  JUDGE  CAN  DE- 
TERMINE THAT  THERE  Is  SUCH  A  NECESSARY  CONNECTION  BETWEEN 

ONE  MAN'S  ADVICE  AND  ANOTHER  MAN'S  ACTION  AS  TO  MAKE  THE 
FORMER  THE  CAUSE  OF  THE  LATTER?" 

From  Brief  of  Leonard  Swett  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 

TT7HE  conviction  of  these  defendants  was  had  without  any  proof 
^  I  k  of  a  corpus  delicti.  What  is  a  corpus  delicti  ?  Simply  the 
•*•  body  or  essence  of  the  wrong.  What  is  the  corpus  delicti  or 
body  of  the  wrong  in  the  case  of  a  principal  charged  with  homicide  ? 
It  is  that  the  defendant  did  the  criminal  act.  What  is  the  corpus 
delicti  in  reference  to  an  accessory  ?  It  is  that  he  aided  and  abetted 
in  the  killing.  Wharton's  Grim.  Ev.,  3,325,  and  note  as  follows  : 

The  corpus  delicti,  the  proof  of  which  is  essential  to  sustain  a  conviction, 
consists  of  a  criminal  act,  and  to  sustain  a  conviction  there  must  be  proof  of 
the  defendant's  guilty  agency  in  the  production  of  such  act. 

The  latter  feature,  namely,  criminal  agency,  is  often  lost  sight  of,  but  is 
as  essential  as  the  object  itself  of  the  crime. 

Acts  in  some  shape  are  essential  to  the  corpus  delicti,  so  far  as  concerns 
the  guilt  of  the  party  accused.  A.  may  have  designed  the  death  of  the  de- 
ceased, yet  if  that  death  has  been  caused  by  another  A.,  no  matter  how  morally 
guilty,  is  not  amenable  to  the  penalties  of  the  law,  if  he  has  done  and  advised 
nothing  in  respect  to  the  death. 

In  this  case  there  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  of  corpus  delicti 
as  to  any  of  the  defendants,  except  in  the  testimony  of  Gilmer, 
which  is  completely  overthrown. 


WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSORY.  183 

Wharton,  in  his  Criminal  Law,  ninth  edition,  Vol.  I.,  §  226, 
note  entitled  "Modes  of  Instigation,"  says : 

Counseling,  to  come  up  to  the  definition,  must  be  special.  Mere  general 
counsel,  for  instance,  that  all  property  should  be  regarded  and  held  as  com- 
mon, will  not  constitute  the  party  offering  it  accessory  before  the  fact  to  a 
larceny  ;  free-love  publications  will  not  constitute  their  authors  technically 
parties  to  sexual  offences  which  these  publications  may  have  stimulated. 
Several  youthful  highway  robbers  have  said  they  were  led  into  crime  by 
reading  "Jack  Sheppard,"  but  the  author  of  Jack  Shoppard  was  not  an  accessory 
before  the  fact  to  the  robberies  to  which  he  thus  added  impulse.  What  human 
Judge  can  determine  that  there  is  such  a  necessary  connection  between  one 
man's  advice  and  another  man's  action  as  to  make  the  former  the  cause  of  the 
latter  ? 

I  know  of  no  more  appropriate  illustration  of  the  legal  status 
and  liability  of  the  defendants  in  relation  to  their  intemperate 
utterances,  or  in  relation  to  their  liability  under  all  the  evidence, 
than  to  recall  the  history  of  the  formation  of  the  Kepublican  party. 
It  was  a  party  which  had  for  its  object  the  reformation  of  the  civil 
society  and  the  civil  institutions  in  this  country.  The  most  radical 
of  its  leaders  characterized  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  as 
"a-  league  with  hell."  Underground  railroads  were  everywhere  estab- 
lished leading  from  Mason's  and  Dixon's  line  to  Canada,  and  people 
conspired  to  do  the  act,  contrary  to  the  constitution  and  the  laws  of 
the  United  States,  of  aiding  and  abetting  the  slave  in  his  escape. 
If  he  were  arrested  by  the  officers  of  the  law,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  arrest  him,  people  were  guilty  of  a  conspiracy  to  rescue  him,  and 
they  often  committed  the  overt  act  of  such  unlawful  conspiracy  by 
actually  rescuing  him  and  aiding  him  in  his  escape.  The  storm 
finally  culminated,  and  bye  and  bye  old  John  Brown,  caught  by 
the  inspiration  of  the  occasion,  committed  an  offence  against  the 
laws  of  Virginia  at  Harper's  Ferry. 

The  question  arising  is  :  Was  everybody  who  made  speeches  for 
this  party  guilty  of  the  offense  of  which  John  Brown  was  convicted? 
The  distinction  exists  in  that  case  as  in  this.  Everybody  who  knew 
John  Brown's  purposes,  and,  knowing  them,  aided,  assisted,  and 
abetted  him,  were  equally  guilty  with  him.  But  those  who  did  not 
know  his  purposes,  and  who  did  not  aid  and  abet  him  in  his  unlaw- 
ful act,  were  not  guilty,  however  intemperate  may  have  been  their 
speeches,  and  whatever  may  have  been  their  general  advice. 

The  other  side  of  this  question,  and  the  side  taken  by  the  pros- 


134  WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSORY. 

ecution  and  the  Court,  is  to  say  that  John  Brown's  raid  was  a 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  Eepublican  party.  If  there  had  been  no 
Eepublican  party  there  would  have  been  no  John  Brown's  raid,  and, 
therefore,  that  all  Kepublicans  who  made  speeches  and  believed  in 
the  utopian  idea  of  a  change  in  society  for  the  benefit  of  a  class 
were  like  the  Anarchists  and  were  particeps  criminis  with  old  John 
Brown  and  ought  to  be  hung. 

The  days  come  and  go  and  this  brief  must  be  filed  to-morrow, 
but  it  is  not  done.  "The  little  foxes  that  spoil  the  vines"  have  got 
their  work  in  every  day  and  have  rendered  greater  progress  impos- 
sible. Therefore,  1  must  refer  your  honors  to  the  able  brief  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  William  P.  Black  and  Messrs.  Salomon  &  Zeisler  upon 
the  two  questions  of  the  impanelment  of  the  jury  and  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Court. 

The  considerate  portion  of  the  community  want  the  plowshare 
of  justice  held  with  firm  but  intelligent  hand,  and  that  it  plow 
straight  through— that  the  defendants  should  be  hanged  if  guilty  of 
murder,  but  not  hanged  if  not  guilty  of  murder.  The  man  at  his 
business,  over-anxious  and  over-worked,  sees  in  the  movement  of 
these  people  simply  an  interruption,  and  he  wants  them  all  hanged 
to  get  rid  of  the  question ;  the  timid  lady  shivers  with  fear,  and 
says :  "Why,  they  will,  if  released,  throw  bombs  through  our  win- 
dows and  blow  up  our  houses."  The  hard-hearted  and  exacting 
want  to  continue  their  oppressions  and  exactions,  and  they  want 
them  all  hanged.  All  these  want  them  hanged — not  for  the  reason 
that  it  is  known  they  have  been  guilty  of  murder,  but  because  the 
fixed  order  of  things  by  these  agitators  is  disturbed. 

Don't  Carnegie's  men  at  Pittsburgh  get  more  a  day  than  Krupp's 
men  in  Europe  ?  Yes,  and  Krupp's  men  in  Europe  get  more  than 
men  in  Central  Africa.  All  mankind  are  moving  to  a  higher  plane^ 
and  it  is  harder  and  more  difficult  to  grind  the  face  of  the  poor  than 
it  was  formerly. 

The  labor  that  moves  the  world  may  not,  as  a  class,  be  the 
most  intelligent.  It  may  not  know  how.  Like  a  man  fastened  face 
downward  and  stretched  out  to  stakes  on  the  grass  of  the  western 
plains  by  Indians,  he  bears  it  until  his  nervous  system  gives  way, 
when  he  will  shriek  and  struggle,  knowing  there  is  a  sore  place 
somewhere. 


WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSORY.  185 

Virginia  wanted  John  Brown  hanged  that  she  might  fold  her 
arms  and  sleep  in  peace.  She  did  hang  him  and  his  companions. 
But  she  did  not  sleep  in  peace. 


I  have  never  before  seen  the  hard  hand  of  toil  respond  with  its 
quarters  of  a  dollar  and  little  gifts  here,  there,  and  everywhere,  and 
with  such  wide-spread  sympathy,  until  the  poverty-stricken  defend- 
ants have  larger  and  readier  means  of  defence  than  any  persons  I 
have  ever  defended  or  known.  Criminals,  under  such  circumstances, 
would  have  shared  the  fate  of  the  neglected  and  the  poor.  What 
does  this  mean  ? 

We  all  remember  the  celebrated  controversy  between  the  wind 
and  the  sun,  told  by  old  ^Esop,  in  which  the  two  entered  into  a 
debate  as  to  which  was  the  stronger,  and  it  was  to  be  decided  by 
an  attack  upon  a  traveler  upon  whom  they  were  looking  down, 
and  the  victor  should  be  he  who  could  make  him  take  off  a  great 
coat  he  was  wearing  first.  The  wind  tried  it,  and  blew  about  him 
and  made  him  shiver  and  his  coat-tails  fluttes,  but  he  only  hugged 
it  the  closer.  The  sun  finally  took  its  turn.  It  came  out  with  its 
warm  and  peaceful  rays.  It  warmed  the  glebe  and  the  man,  and 
very  soon  he  began  to  wipe  the  sweat  from  his  brow  and  pulled  off 
his  coat.  May  be  we  can  learn  something  from  this  simple  story, 
which  has  come  down  the  ages  from  a  period  in  the  world's  history 
in  which  labor  was  at  complete  rest. 

The  truth  is,  a  man  wants  more  than  he  used  to  want.  He 
may  labor,  he  may  live  in  a  hut,  but  whenever  he  sees  other  people 
have  comforts  he  wants  them  for  himself.  We  never  want  and 
long  for  what  we  do  not  know  to  exist.  The  wealthy  cannot  have 
luxuries  without  letting  the  poor  know  it.  A  workman  cannot 
walk  at  night  by  the  house  well  warmed  and  full  of  brightness  and 
good  cheer  without  wishing  it  were  his  own  home.  The  wife  of 
the  workman  will  see  the  wife  of  his  employer  and  envy  her.  His 
daughter  cannot,  as  she  works  at  the  market  price  of  labor,  but 
sigh  "for  something  better  than  she  has  known,  '  and  think,  as  she 
drudges  to  her  sewing  machine,  how  much  better  it  would  be  to  go 
to  a  piano.  Humanity  lies  in  a  pyramid,  and  every  man  and  woman 
envies  the  man  or  woman  next  higher.  Even  the  apex  man  is  not 
content.  "Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  the  crown."  And  yet 


136  WHAT  IS  AN  ACCESSORY. 

the  greatest  hopes  of  humanity  rest  in  the  fact  that  all  classes  and 
individuals  are  always  and  everywhere  bearing. 

"A  banner  with  the  strange  device — Excelsior." 

The  truth  is,  the  peoples  of  the  world  are  inseparably  linked 
together.  Mankind  are  brothers,  and  they  are  held  together  as 
the  world  itself  is  held ;  you  cannot,  without  breaking  things,  pro- 
duce the  elevation  of  the  mountain  without  lifting  up  the  country 
adjoining.  The  rich  hold  in  exclusiveness,  by  a  doubtful  tenure, 
all  the  delights  and  honors  and  excitements  of  life  so  long  as  the 
millions  enjoy  only  a  heritage  of  unenlightened  labor  and  un- 
rewarded toil.  We  must  either  all  go  back  to  barbarism,  where 
equality  and  contentment  reign,  or  the  rich  must  lift  up  the  poor  in 
proportion  as  they  themselves  are  lifted  up.  Let,  therefore,  the  man 
of  wealth,  instead  of  barricading  the  doors  of  his  home,  and  seek- 
ing shelter  in  bars  and  bolts  and  iron  gates,  take  his  basket  of 
overflowing  plenty  upon  his  arm  and  seek  out  the  homes  of  squalor 
and  want  and  find  his  safety  and  the  safety  of  his  home  in  the  uni- 
versal brotherhood  of  man. 

LEONORD  SWETT, 
Of  Counsel  for  the  Defendants. 

CHICAGO,  March  1,  1887. 


MR.  PARSONS  IN  COURT.* 

Arch-Conspirator  A.  B.  Parsons  amazed  the  crowd,  and  even 
dazed  the  placid  Presiding  Judge  Gary,  by  marching  into  the 
court-room  beside  Lawyer  Black,  chief  counsel  for  the  Anarchists. 
The  much-sought-after  dynamiter  walked  quietly  into  Court  and 
took  a  chair.  He  made  no  more  ado  than  if  he  had  come  in  as  an 
interested  spectator.  The  idea  of  being  a  hunted  fugitive  did  not 
seem  to  possess  him  in  the  least. 

Capt.  Black  introduced  him  to  the  Court  as  one  of  the  defend- 
ants in  the  case  at  bar,  and  asked  that  he  be  arraigned.  Not  a 
word  of  explanation  was  vouchsafed,  nor  was  there  any  attempt  by 
the  police  officers  present  to  interfere.  Where  he  came  from,  or 

*  Sample  report  of  capitalistic  papers  of  Mr.  Parsons'  voluntary  surrender  in  Court  for 
trial  when  the  case  was  called,  June  21,  1886. 


MR.  PARSONS  IN  COURT.  187 

where  he  had  spent  the  time  he  has  been  so  sadly  missed,  was  not 
known.  No  one  ventured  to  inquire  while  the  prisoner  was  being 
arraigned. 

Parsons  looked  as  he  always  has  since  Chicagoans  have  known 
him — thin.  He  was  dressed  in  a  quiet  suit  of  blue.  He  was  led  to 
where  the  other  prisoners  were  sitting,  and  where  the  defendants' 
counsel  had  retained  a  seat  for  him.  It  was  a  carefully  arranged 
surprise,  dramatically  carried  out. 

"Parsons,"  said  Lawyer  Black,  "has  not  at  any  time  been  over 
100  miles  from  the  city,  yet  all  the  200  officers  looking  for  him 
would  never  have  unearthed  him.  He  was  not  brought  forward 
before  simply  because  the  methods  of  the  Chicago  police  are  brutal 
and  utterly  above  and  regardless  of  the  law.  I  proposed  to  have 
my  client  treated  legally  and  not  bullyragged  and  tortured  as  pris- 
oners are  not  even  in  Eussia." 

A  police  officer  said  that  there  was  but  one  theory  that  he  had 
as  to  the  hiding-place  of  the  prisoner,  and  that  was  that  he  was 
secreted  in  Capt.  Black's  own  household. 

After  the  flutter  following  his  entrance  was  over,  Parsons  was 
formally  arraigned.  This  took  but  a  few  minutes,  the  prisoner 
pleading  not  guilty.  He  then  took  his  seat,  and  the  examination 
of  the  jurors  was  proceeded  with,  just  as  if  the  police  had  had  no 
such  terrible  humiliation  put  upon  them,  and  just  as  if  the  Judge 
and  audience  had  had  no  great  surprise  given  them. 

On  being  seen  by  the  reporter  after  he  was  locked  up,  in  reply 
to  a  question  as  to  where  he  had  been,  he  laughingly  remarked : 

"Oh,  only  rusticating  at  a  fashionable  western  summer  resort." 

"Well,  what  was  your  object  in  surrendering  to  the  authorities, 
at  this  time  of  such  public  excitement  ?" 

"I  have  simply  returned  to  bear  my  share  with  my  comrades 
here,  whatever  fate  may  have  in  store  for  them  and  me.1' 

Another  capitalistic  paper  says,  in  commenting  upon  his  sur- 
render :  "The  voluntary  surrender  of  A.  E.  Parsons  in  Court  makes 
him  the  central  figure  in  the  greatest  criminal  trial  of  modern 
times." 


138  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

THE  TRIAL  OP  THE  CHICAGO  ANARCHISTS  is  ENDED,  BUT  THE  TRIAL  OF 
THE  JUDGMENT  UNDER  WHICH  THEY  SUFFERED  is  ONLY  JUST  BEGUN 
— ODDS  AGAINST  THE  PRISONERS — THE  SCALES  OF  JUSTICE  POISED 
UNEVENLY  BETWEEN  THE  ACCUSED  AND  THE  STATE — THE  DECISION 
OPEN  TO  SEVERE  CRITICISM — STARTLING  AFFIDAVIT  OF  OTIS  FAVOR 
— THE  CHICAGO  "TRIBUNE'S"  BLOOD-FUND— f  100,000  RAISED  FOR 
THE  JURY — JUDGE  GARY'S  CONTRIBUTIONS — THE  SUPREME  COURT'S 
ARBITRARY  AND  INCONSISTENT  RULINGS — AN  ARTFUL  PLEA  OF  AN 
ADVOCATE — THE  UNFAIR  STRATEGY  AND  TACTICS  EMPLOYED  BY  THE 
STATE'S  ATTORNEY — HE  IMITATES  MARK  ANTONY — PACKED  JURY- 
THOMAS  JEFFRSON  AND  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS. 

These  extracts  are  taken  from  the  pamphlet  entitled  the  "Trial  of  the  Judgment  "  by  Gen.  M.  M. 
Trumbull,  attorney -at-law,  Chicago,  in  his  review  of  the  Anarchists'  case. 

KEVIEW  OF  THE  TRIAL. 

I N  the  llth  of  November,  1887,  four  men  were  hanged  in  Chi- 
cago under  the  forms  of  law.  They  were  tried  by  a  jury, 
and  judgment  of  death  was  pronounced  against  them.  The 
judgment  was  affirmed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois  and  ratified 
by  the  Governor.  The  public  conscience  is  becoming  uneasy  under 
the  suspicion  that  this  was  a  political  trial  and  a  class  execution, 
like  some  historic  attainders  which  have  left  the  imprint  of  bloody 
fingers  upon  the  jurisprudence  of  England.  It  is  averred  by 
friends  and  believed  by  many  enemies  of  the  condemned  men  that 
their  trial  was  unfair,  the  rulings  of  the  Courts  illegal,  and  the 
sentence  unjust.  The  trial  of  the  Chicago  Anarchists  is  ended,  but 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  189 

the  trial  of  the  judgment  under  which  they  suffered  is  only  just 
begun.  When  reason  and  courage  return  to  the  people  of  Illinois 
that  judgment  will  be  reversed,  and  the  terrified  magistrates  who 
pronounced  it  and  sustained  it  will  be  sentenced  to  an  immortality 
of  derision.  It  will  be  reversed  as  emphatically  as  the  Dred  Scott 
judgment  was  reversed;  as  thousands  of  other  barbarous  judg- 
ments have  been  reversed;  as  righteousness  in  due  time  shall 
reverse  a  thousand  more.  The  march  of  civilization  is  over  the 
judgments  of  Supreme  Courts,  and  on  the  ruins  of  those  judgments 
humanity  lays  the  foundation  for  better  laws. 
*  *  *  ********** 

There  are  state  trials  famous  in  history,  not  because  of  their 
dramatic  character  and  surroundings,  nor  because  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  crimes  involved,  but  because  in  those  trials  the  law  itself  was 
twisted  out  of  moral  symmetry  to  gratify  public  revenge ;  justice 
was  violated  in  her  own  temple  and  the  fountain  of  liberty  polluted. 
This  case  will  be  memorable  also,  not  for  the  enormity  of  the  crime 
charged,  but  for  the  enormity  of  the  trial.  The  methods  of  pro- 
cedure practiced  and  allowed  by  the  Judges  of  King  James'  time — 
methods  now  obsolete  in  England — have  been  revived  in  Illinois. 
Trial  by  jury  has  been  perverted,  even  to  the  shedding  of  innocent 
blood,  and  all  the  securities  of  liberty  have  been  put  in  jeopardy. 

Conspicuous  among  the  accused  in  this  indictment  stands  the 
Governor  of  Illinois.  Appalled  by  the  clamor  of  an  angry  populace, 
he  executed  vengeance  with  merciless  decision.  Panic -striken  by 
the  noise  outside,  he  shut  his  ears  to  the  heart-broken  prayers  of 
children,  mothers,  and  wives  pleading  at  his  knees  for  father, 
husband,  son.  He  did  this,  although  he  knew  that  the  frightened 
Courts,  even  when  speaking  the  death  sentence,  had  confessed  that 
errors  prevailed  in  the  trial.  He  did  this,  when  as  a  lawyer  he 
knew  that  there  were  other  errors  in  the  trial  which  the  Courts  did 
not  confess.  He  had  an  opportunity  to  show  the  highest  quality  of 
magnanimous  power,  and  at  the  same  time  save  the  jurisprudence 
of  Illinois  from  the  stigma  which  must  disfigure  it  for  centuries  to 
come.  He  lacked  greatness  of  spirit,  and  his  opportunity  passed 
away.  Had  he  been  morally  tall  enough  to  reach  the  knees  of 
Abraham  Lincoln,  he  would  have  saved  the  State  of  Illinois  from 
"the  deep  damnation  of  this  taking  off." 


140  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

In  the  trial  of  the  Anarchists  the  law  itself  was  bent  and  strained 
io  the  breaking  point.  On  the  floor  of  the  court-house  they  stood 
at  a  perilous  disadvantage.  The  scales  of  justice  were  not  poised 
evenly  between  the  accused  and  the  State.  They  were  poor ;  the 
prosecution  rich.  The  whole  machinery  of  the  city  and  county 
government  was  at  the  service  of  the  prosecution.  The  treasury 
was  reckless  of  cost.  The  police  force,  the  detective  force,  and 
every  official  influence  were  active  against  the  prisoners.  They  were 
beaten  from  the  start.  In  the  arena  of  life  or  death  they  fought 
against  odds  unfair  and  invincible.  They  played  for  a  jury  with 
dice  loaded  against  them.  The  indictment  was  a  bewildering  con- 
tradiction of  sixty-nine  discordant  counts,  and  every  count  was  the 
liorn  of  a  dilemna. 

The  course  pursued  by  the  counsel  for  the  State  was  unfair 
throughout  the  trial.  A  few  examples  of  the  strategy  and  tactics 
they  employed  will  prove  this  accusation.  They  were  permitted  to 
imitate  Mark  Antony  when  he  inflamed  the  passions  of  the  populace 
by  pointing  them  to  "Caesar's  vesture  wounded."  They  were  per- 
mitted to  show  the  jury  not  only  the  wounded  vesture  of  Matthias 
Began,  but  also  that  of  several  other  men  whose  names  were  not  in 
the  indictment  at  all.  They  were  permitted  to  call  the  attention  of 
the  jury  to  the  blood  upon  the  vesture,  after  the  style  of  Antony 
when  he  said : 

See  what  a  rent  the  envious  Casca  made — 

Through  this  the  well-beloved  Brutus  stabbed; 

And  as  he  plucked  his  cursed  steel  away, 

Mark  how  the  blood  of  Ceesar  followed  it. 

The  artful  stump  speech  of  Antony  was  perfectly  legitimate.  It 
was  not  made  in  a  judicial  proceeding,  but  in  a  political  contest. 
He  was  of  the  opposite  party  to  that  of  Brutus.  The  struggle  be- 
tween them  was  for  the  possession  of  the  offices  and  the  control  of 
the  Government.  But  had  Antony  been  State's  Attorney,  prose- 
cuting Brutus  and  Cassius  under  an  indictment  for  the  murder  of 
Csesar,  the  Eoman  Judges  would  not  have  allowed  him  to  practice 
before  a  jury  in  the  court-house  the  methods  he  employed  in  the 
streets  before  a  mob.  The  object  of  Antony  in  Caesar's  case  and  of 
the  counsel  for  the  people  in  Degan's  case  were  alike  to  excite  feel- 
ings of  anger  and  revenge  in  the  men  they  were  talking  to — the 
jury  in  the  one  case,  the  mob  in  the  other.  There  was  no  dispute 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 


141 


whatever  about  the  matter  of  Degan's  death,  and  therefore  the  ex- 
posure of  his  wounded  vesture  to  the  jury  was  useless  and  super- 
fluous, except  as  an  appeal  for  vengeance.  The  Supreme  Court, 
unwilling  to  sanction  such  a  method,  finds  a  weak  excuse  for  it, 
and  mildly  rebukes  it  thus : 

The  articles  in  question  were  presented  in  the  condition  in  which  they 
were  left  after  being  exposed  to  the  force  of  an  exploding  bomb,  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  the  power  of  dynamite  as  an  explosive  substance.  While 
this  kind  of  testimony  may  not  have  been  very  material,  we  cannot  see  that  it 
was  to  such  an  extent  incompetent  as  to  justify  a  reversal. 

No,  it  is  not  pretended  that  every  error  is  enough  of  itself  to 
justify  a  reversal,  but  when  the  errors  are  multitudinous,  as  they 
are  in  this  case,  a  new  trial  ought  to  have  been  allowed.  The  power 
of  dynamite  as  an  explosive  substance  was  not  in  issue.  It  was 
conceded  that  dynamite  was  an  explosive  substance,  and  that  a 
dynamite  bomb  killed  Degan.  The  jury  knew  that  dynamite  was 
an  explosive  substance.  They  knew  it  as  well  before  the  torn  and 
bloody  clothing  was  exhibited  as  they  did  afterward.  Mark  Antony 
could  as  pertinently  say  that  he  showed  the  rent  vesture  of  Csesar 
to  convince  the  people  that  daggers  had  the  power  to  cut.  The  ex- 
cuse fails ;  the  purpose  of  the  exhibition  is  too  plain. 


The  speeches  to  the  jury  were  appeals  for  vengeance  on  the 
prisoners.  They  were  Anarchy  in  legal  robes,  vindictive  and  crim- 
son as  the  speeches  for  which  the  defendants  themselves  were  tried. 
The  moral  discipline  of  the  bar  was  broken,  and  the  ethics  of  the 
profession  lowered  when  the  State's  Attorney  condescended  to  pour 
angry  invective  and  personal  reproaches  upon  men  powerless  to 
reply.  The  dignity  of  the  legal  profession  shriveled  up  when  the 
counsel  for  the  people  offered  fact-statements  to  the  jury  free  from 
the  guards  and  sanctions  of  an  oath,  and  free  from  the  test  of  cross- 
examination.  Worse  than  all,  the  very  genius  of  advocacy  looked 
mendicant  and  ragged  when  the  State's  Attorney  begged  for  a  ver- 
dict on  the  niggling  plea  that  the  State  had  no  appeal  from  acquittal 
while  from  a  judgment  of  guilty  the  defendants  could  appeal  for  a 
reversal  to  the  Supreme  Court,  or  to  the  Governor  for  a  mitigation 
of  the  sentence.  This  was  almost  a  promise  that  a  death  sentence 
having  served  as  an  example  and  a  warning  the  death  penalty 


142  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

would  not  be  inflicted.  "Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  their  blood  be 
upon  us  and  upon  our  children,  not  upon  you."  It  was  illegal  for 
the  State's  Attorney  to  absolve  the  jury  from  any  portion  of  respon- 
sibility for  the  sentence  of  death. 

"The  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them,"  and  whenever  a  crim- 
inal trial  become  historic  the  wrongs  done  in  its  prosecution  by 
either  bench  or  bar,  brand  themselves  in  marks  of  shame  upon  the 
perpetrators.  No  subsequent  greatness,  not  even  the  glory  of  judi- 
cial integrity  nor  the  splendor  of  intellectual  achievement,  can 
erase  the  livid  lines  that  tell  of  deep  disgrace.  They  cling  like  a 
bar  sinister  to  character,  and  remain  visible  so  long  as  the  names 
of  the  wrong- doers  remain  visible  in  history. 
*  #  #  #  ##*##*#*# 

When  Mr.  Grinnell  told  the  jury  in  the  Anarchist  case  that  the 
defendants  were  on  trial  for  treason,  he  said  what  was  not  true. 
There  was  no  such  charge  against  them  in  the  indictment.  The 
jury,  however,  acted  on  the  statement  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  believing  that 
the  State's  Attorney  would  not  mislead  them  as  to  the  issues  they 
were  sworn  to  try.  It  is  very  likely  that  some  of  the  jurymen  still 
believe  that  the  Anarchists  were  hanged  for  treason.  This  parallel 
may  be  continued  farther.  The  fate  of  Raleigh  and  the  Anarchists 
was  the  same.  Commenting  on  the  case  Lord  Campbell  says : 

Of  course,  there  was  a  verdict  of  guilty,  and  the  atrocity  was  perpetrated 
of  ordering  him  to  be  executed  on  this  illegal  judgment. 

In  training  public  opinion  to  the  hanging  point,  the  delusion  has 
been  spread  among  the  people  of  Illinois  that  a  judgment  obtained 
on  the  verdict  of  a  jury  and  affirmed  by  the  Courts  becomes  ipso 
facto  and  de  jure  legal.  But  law  is  only  a  branch  of  moral  science, 
and  the  Courts  of  righteousness  have  jurisdiction  over  all  its  judg- 
ments to  reverse  them  or  sustain  them.  Nay,  tested  by  a  lower 
standard,  the  merely  human  rules  established  for  the  protection  of 
the  citizen  on  trial  for  his  life,  the  judgment  against  Ealeigh  was 
not  only  unjust,  but  illegal.  This  is  the  decision  of  Lord  Campbell, 
himself  a  lawyer  and  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England.  By  the  un- 
animous consent  of  the  bar  of  England,  the  judgment  against 
Ealeigh  is  reversed.  Already  hundreds  of  Illinois  lawyers  admit 
that  the  judgment  against  the  Anarchists  was  illegal.  Before  long 
it  will  be  reversed  as  illegal  by  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  bar. 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  143 

Before  the  tribunal  of  enlightened  conscience  the  trial  of  the 
Anarchists  must  itself  be  tried,  and  in  that  higher  Court  it  will 
surely  be  condemned. 


N'ever  before,  except  in  burlesque,  was  the  meaning  of  words 
reversed  as  in  the  Anarchists'  trial.  Logic  stood  on  its  head  and 
reasoned  with  its  heels.  Facts  absent  from  the  theory  of  the  pro- 
secution were  solemnly  claimed  as  evidence  to  etablish  it.  It  was 
averred  that  if  certain  events  had  happened  which  did  not  happen 
they  would  have  shown  that  the  conspiracy  and  the  tragedy  were 
cause  and  consequence,  therefore  the  connection  is  proved.  This 
is  not  meant  for  ridicule,  and  its  grotesque  appearance  is  merely 
the  shadow  of  the  Supreme  Court  tracing  the  crime  back  to  the 
conspiracy.  It  is  the  language  of  the  opinion  itself  thab  throws 
sarcasm  upon  the  decision.  Here  is  the  claim  of  the  Supreme 
Court : 

The  mode  of  attack  as  made  corresponded  with  the  mode  of  attack  as 
planned. 

And  here  is  the  inconsequent  reasoning  by  which  that  claim  is 
supported : 

The  Desplaines  Street  station  was  in  sight  of  the  speakers'  wagon,  and 
only  a  short  distance  south  of  it.  If  a  bomb  had  been  thrown  into  the  station 
itself,  and  if  the  policemen  had  been  shot  down  while  coming  out,  a  part  of 
the  conspiracy  would  have  been  literally  executed  just  as  it  was  agreed 
upon. 

By  reasoning  upside  down  in  that  fashion  the  tragedy  in  the 
Haymarket  is  connected  with  a  conspiracy  that  was  not  carried  out, 
and  seven  men  vaguely  and  remotely  identified  with  said  "con- 
spiracy" are  connected  with  a  bomb  thrown  by  "a  person  un- 
known," and  who  is  not  shown  to  have  had  any  association  what- 
ever with  the  seven  men,  nor  any  connection  at  all  with  the  so-called 
conspiracy.  The  Supreme  Court  itself  virtually  rejects  the  theory 
that  Schnaubelt  threw  the  bomb,  for  the  more  comprehensive  drag- 
net theory  that  is  was  thrown  by  "some  person  to  the  jurors  un- 
known." 
#  *  #  *##*****•**• 

The  conspiracy  which  the  prosecution  attempted  to  show  on  the 
trial,  and  which  it  is  pretended  they  did  show,  was  not  carried  into 


144  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

execution  in  any  of  its  essential  details.  As  illustrated  and  ex- 
plained by  the  Supreme  Court  itself,  it  was  a  conspiracy  that  aimed 
at  a  social  and  political  revolution.  Hundreds,  aye,  thousands  of 
men  were  engaged  in  it.  It  was  to  begin  by  the  throwing  of  bombs 
into  the  North  Avenue  station  and  into  other  stations  in  the  city. 
Well-drilled  men,  armed  with  rifles,  were  to  be  stationed  outside  to 
shoot  the  police  as  they  came  out ;  then  the  conspirators  were  to 
march  inward,  toward  the  heart  of  the  city,  destroying  whatever 
should  oppose  them ;  the  telegraph  wires  and  the  hose  of  the  fire- 
men would  be  cut,  and  the  reign  of  Anarchy  begin.  Nothing  of  the 
kind  occurred ;  nothing  of  it  was  attempted ;  nothing  of  it  prepared 
for,  except  the  making  of  bombs  by  Lingg. 

According  to  the  conspiracy  relied  on  by  the  prosecution,  many 
men  should  have  been  engaged  in  it,  and  many  bombs  thrown.  In 
fact  only  one  bomb  was  thrown,  and  that  by  an  unknown  man. 
This  disproves  that  conspiracy,  and  tends  to  show  that  the  bomb- 
throwing  was  the  revengeful  act  of  one  man  alone.  There  were  no 
armed  men  with  rifles  anywhere,  and  the  claim  that  pistols  were 
fired  by  the  mob  is  disputed  by  strong  evidence.  Every  essential 
detail  of  the  alleged  conspiracy  was  absent  from  the  tragedy,  and 
for  want  of  the  necessary  facts  a  scaffold  was  built  of  "if"  and 
"would  have  been." 

If  a  bomb  had  been  thrown  into  the  station,  and  if  the  policemen  had 
been  shot  down  while  coming  out,  a  part  of  the  conspiracy  icould  have  been 
literally  executed. 

And  therefore  men  must  die  for  a  conspiracy  which  was  not  exe- 
cuted, but  which  would  have  been  executed  if  something  which  never 
happened  had  been  done ;  a  conspiracy  of  which,  if  it  even  existed, 
some  of  the  condemned  men  could  not  possibly  have  had  any 
knowledge.  And  thus  the  evidence  in  the  case  overwhelmingly 
proves  that  the  mode  of  attack  as  made  corresponded  not  with  the 
mode  of  attack  as  planned. 

Had  the  indictment  been  simply  for  a  conspiracy  punishable 
by  fine  and  imprisonment,  the  prosecution  would  have  been  held 
down  to  clear  and  definite  allegations  with  which  the  evidence  would 
have  been  compelled  to  correspond.  As  it  was,  the  heavier  crime  of 
murder  was  permitted  to  rest  upon  an  undefined  and  shadowy 
charge,  composed  of  opposite  and  contradictory  ingredients.  The 
so-called  conspiracy,  instead  of  being  a  substantial  accusation  based 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  145 

on  fact-averments  on  which  issue  might  be  taken,  was  nothing  but 
a  claim  growing  out  of  a  mass  of  incoherent  running  testimony, 
and  shifting  day  by  day.  The  conspiracy  was  a  remote  cloud, 
changing  its  form  continuously  in  obedience  to  the  changing  winds 
of  evidence.  One  day  it  was  like  a  weasel,  the  next  it  was  backed 
like  a  camel,  and  at  last  it  was  "very  like  a  whale." 

Allowing  the  so-called  conspiracy  the  exaggerated  from  given 
to  it  by  the  State's  Attorney,  the  parts  of  it  were  so  remote  from 
each  other,  and  from  the  defendants  respectively,  that  no  criminal 
relationship  could  ever  be  established  between  them.  The  details 
of  it  could  never  have  been  set  forth  by  specific  averments  in  an  in- 
dictment. It  was  a  huge  pretense,  composed  of  incoherent  stories 
and  contradictory  evidence.  It  was  a  constructive  conspiracy, which 
could  not  have  stood  alone  in  any  civilized  Court,  and  yet  it  was 
held  good  enough  to  sustain  a  charge  of  murder  and  the  conviction 
of  eight  men.  The  suspicion  already  weighs  like  a  nightmare  on  the 
people  of  Illinois  that  men  were  hanged  in  Chicago  for  metaphorical 
treason  under  an  indictment  for  inferential  murder.  It  must  ever 
be  a  reproach  to  the  memory  of  Gov.  Oglesby  that  in  his  admin- 
istration the  illegal  doctrine  of  constructive  murder  and  collateral 
guilt  was  affirmed  by  death  warrants  carrying  on  their  faces  the 
sanction  of  the  great  seal  of  Illinois. 

HOW  THE  JURY  WAS  SECURED. 

The  swift*  and  eager  verdict  of  the  jury  in  the  Anarchist  case 
justified  all  the  censure  which  has  been  cast  upon  the  trial.  They 
were  out  only  three  hours  altogether,  and  most  of  that  time  was 


*  Twenty-four  hours  before  the  jury  retired  to  consider  their  verdict,  the  Chicago  Tribune 
opened  its  columna  for  the  solicitation  of  voluntary  contributions  to  pay  the  jury  for  the 
verdict !  It  was  suggested  that  a  sum  of  $100,000  be  raised  for  this  purpose.  This  was  done 
editorially.  Several  good  Christian  gentlemen  sent  their  names  to  the  paper,  stating  the 
Bum  they  were  willing  to  contribute  to  the  blood-fund.  Possibly  this  may  have  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  "swift"  verdict.  A  brother-in-law  of  one  of  the  jurors  was  in  constant 
attendance  upon  them ;  brothers-in-law  have  been  known  to  let  their  kinsmen  know  when 
there  was  a  good  thing  in  prospect  for  them.  The  following  are  a  fair  sample  of  letters  from 
some  of  those  good  Christian  gentlemen  : 

"A  FUND  FOB  THE  JDBT.  Chicago,  August  20,  18-6— Editor  of  the  Tribune:  In  view  of  the 
"long  and  close  confinement  endured  by  the  jury  in  the  Anarchist  trial  and  the  display  of 
"manly  courage  evidenced  by  their  prompt  and  fearless  verdict,  I  beg  to  suggest  the  pro- 
priety of  starting  a  subscription  for  the  purpose  of  raising  at  least  Sl,0f,0  for  the  benefit  of 
"each  juryman.  I  am  far  from  being  rich,  but  would  gladly  give  $25  for  this  purpose,  and 
"will  deliver  same  at  your  office  the  day  you  may  start  the  subscription.  W.  C.  E." 

"Chicago,  August  20,  1886— Editor  of  the  Tribune:  The  long  agony  is  over.  Law  has  tri- 
"umphed.  Anarchy  is  defeated.  The  conspirators  have  been  promptly  convicted.  Let  them 
"be  as  promptly  punished.  The  'twelve  yood  men  and  true,'  whose  honesty  and  fearlesness 


146  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

occupied  in  fixing  the  punishment  of  Neebe.  The  trial  had  lasted 
eight  weeks,  the  indictment  contained  sixty-nine  counts ;  there  were 
eight  men  on  trial ;  the  evidence  amounted  to  volumes  of  all  sorts 
of  testimony,  some  of  it  applying  to  one  of  the  prisoners,  some  of  it 
to  another,  some  of  it  to  two  or  three  of  them,  and  scarcely  any  of 
it  to  all  of  them.  The  instructions  of  the  Court  were  numerous  and 
intricate,  requiring  careful  discrimination  in  the  reading  of  them, 
and  the  offence  charged  was  murder,  committed  by  the  explosion 
of  a  bomb  which  it  was  conceded  none  of  the  defendants  threw.  It 
is  hardly  possible  that  the  jury  could  have  read  the  instructions  at 
all ;  certainly  they  could  not  have  compared  them  with  the  testi- 
mony. They  could  hardly  have  read  the  indictment  in  three  hours, 
and  they  could  not  have  reconciled  its  contradictory  counts  in  three 
years.  They  certainly  never  attempted  to  separate  the  evidence 
against  one  from  the  evidence  against  the  others.  They  simply 
applied  the  whole  of  it  to  each  of  the  defendants  and  found  them 
all  guilty  of  murder  in  the  first  degree.  It  was  the  easiest  thing  to 
do,  for  their  brains  were  all  rumpled  and  disordered  by  the  myster- 
ies of  collateral  guilt  and  clairvoyant  combination  to  kill. 
####****##* 

That  the  bailiff  had  the  power  to  pack  the  jury  is  not  denied  by 
anybody;  that  he  did  pack  the  jury  is  disputed,  but  the  evidence 
against  him  is  very  strong ;  that  he  said  he  would  pack  the  jury  is 
charged  by  affidavit  of  Otis  Favor,*  a  citizen  of  Chicago,  personally 
acquainted  with  the  bailiff.  This  affidavit  has  not  yet  been  answered 
by  a  counter-affidavit,  and  the  presumption  arises  that  it  is  true. 
That  the  trial  Court  denied  an  application  for  leave  to  examine  Otis 
.Favor  as  a  witness  to  the  misconduct  of  the  bailiff  is  confessed  and 
admitted  in  the  record.  In  justice  to  all  the  parties  concerned  it  is 


*  See  Appendix,  page  242,  lor  this  affidavit. 

"made  a  conviction  possible  should  not  be  forgotten.  They  have  performed  their  unpleasant 
"duty  without  flinching.  Let  them  be  generously  remembered.  Baise  a  fund— say  $100,000— 
"to  be  presented  with  the  thanks  of  a  grateful  people.  E.  A.  MULFORD." 

"Mr.  N.  B.  Beam,  in  speaking  to  a  Tribune  reporter,  thought  it  would  be  eminently  proper 
"to  start  a  fund  for  the  purpose  of  indemnifying  the  jurors  •who  so  patiently  sat  for  eight 
"weeks  at  the  trial,  thereby  losing  in  business  and  tune  and  endangering  their  health,  for 
"which  they  were  so  meagerly  paid  by  theCounty  and  then  in  vouchers  which  will  becashed 
"nobody  knows  when.  Mr.  Beam  thought  it  was  not  proper  to  mention  this  while  the  trial 
"was  in  progress,  but  now  that  it  is  over  he  is  willing  to  head  the  list  with  the  sum  of  d500. 
"Thus  will  the  schoolmaster  who  so  nobly  sacrificed  his  vacation  be  in  a  measure  repaid, 
"and  so  will  the  others  who,  being  mostly  if  not  all  business  men,  were  greatly  inconven- 
ienced by  their  selection  as  jurors." 

Nor  was  the  good  Judge  Gary  unmindful  of  the  raising  of  the  blood  fund.  For  hear  what 
the  "honorable"  Judge  has  to  say  from  the  bench  in  thanking  the  jury  for  the  noble  work 
on  their  part,  so  well  prearranged  in  the  awful  tragedy  of  judicial  murder : 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  147 

only  fair  that  the  whole  matter  of  the  bailiff's  alleged  misconduct 
should  be  impartially  set  forth. 

Otis  Favor  is  a  man  of  high  character  and  standing,  doing  busi- 
ness in  Chicago,  and  he  was  personally  well  acquainted  with  Eyce, 
the  bailiff.  After  the  trial  was  over  Favor  told  Mr.  E.  A.  Stevens 
that  when  Eyce  was  selecting  the  jury  he  said  to  Favor,  in  sub- 
stance this :  "I  am  managing  this  case,  and  I  know  what  I  am  about. 
Those  fellows  will  hang  as  certain  as  death.  I  am  summoning  as 
jurors  such  men  as  they  will  be  compelled  to  challenge,  and  when 
ihey  have  exhausted  their  challenges  they  will  have  to  take  such 
a  jury  as  is  satisfactory  to  the  State."  Stevens  made  affidavit 
that  Favor  told  him  this  in  private  conversation.  Thereupon  de- 
fendants, in  their  application  for  a  new  trial,  asked  that  Favor  be 
summoned  and  examined  as  to  the  alleged  boast  of  Eyce.  This  ap- 
plication was  refused,  the  judge  deciding  that  the  Court  had  no 
power  to  order  the  attendance  at  that  time  of  Otis  Favor.  It  should 
be  stated  here  that  Mr.  Favor  refused  to  appear  and  testify  or  to 
make  any  affidavit  unless  required  to  do  so  by  an  order  of  the  Court. 
The  order  was  refused.  He  made  the  affidavit  afterward. 

The  plea  of  the  Supreme  Court  that  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
defendants  were  harmed  by  the  remark  of  Eyce  to  Favor,  and  that 
there  is  no  thing  to  showthat  Eyce  said  anything  to  the  jurors  whom 
he  summoned,  is  an  ancient  manoauvre  in  sophistry.  It  is  useful  to 
divert  the  argument  and  send  it  in  a  wrong  direction.  In  fox  hunt- 
ing times  it  was  figuratively  called  "throwing  the  hounds  off  the 
scent."  A  fellow  with  a  red  herring  in  his  pocket  could  trail  the 
dogs  away  off  to  the  north  while  the  fox  was  running  to  the  south. 
It  is  the  affectation  of  ignorance  to  pretend  that  the  defendants 
claimed  that  harm  was  done  to  them  by  the  remark  of  Eyce  to 


"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury:  You  have  finished  this  long  and  very  arduous  trial,  which  has 
"required  a  considerable  sacrifice  of  time  and  some  hardship.  I  hope  that  everything  has 
"been  done  that  could  possibly  be  done  to  make  those  sacrifices  and  hardships  as  mild  as 
"might  be  permitted.  It  does  not  become  me  to  say  anything  in  regard  to  the  case  that  you 
"have  tried  or  verdict  you  .have  rendered,  but  men  compulsorily  serving  as  jurors,  as  you  have 
"done,  deserve  some  recognition  of  the  service  you  have  performed  besides  the  meager  com- 
pensation you  have  received." 

Now  the  "hardships"  consisted  in  the  jury's  being  put  up  at  a  fashionable  hotel,  just 
across  from  the  court-house,  and  in  sight  of  the  entrance,  so  they  could  observe  the  part 
played  by  the  police  and  detectives.  The  latter  fairly  swarmed  about  the  door,  and  as  the  jury 
filed  past  many  times  they  were  heard  to  make  such  remarks  about  the  case  as  to  prejudice 
still  further  the  already  prejudiced  jury's  minds.  The  "sacrifice"  was  relieved  by  giving  the 
jury  carriage  rides  every  Sunday  along  the  avenues  of  the  rich,  and  occasionally  letting  a 
juror  visit  his  family,  it  being  alleged  that  there  was  sickness  in  the  family.  But  this  was 
done  possibly  because  they  were  a  jury  of  "gentlemen"  and  a  jury  of  business  men. " 


148  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

Favor.  The  Supreme  Court  knew  better.  The  complaint  of  the 
defendants  was  that  they  were  harmed  by  the  packing  of  the  jury, 
of  which  the  remark  of  Kyce  to  Favor  was  merely  evidence,  an 
acknowledgment,  and  a  boast.  Neither  did  they  claim  to  be  injured 
by  anything  said  by  Eyce  to  the  jurors  whom  he  summoned.  The 
complaint  was  that  the  jurors  themselves  were  picked  and  the  jury 
packed.  They  objected  to  what  Eyce  did,  not  what  he  said.  They 
complained  that  Eyce  summoned  a  jury  not  to  try  them,  but  to 
hang  them.  The  acts  of  Eyce  are  not  to  be  obscured  by  a  cloud  of 
controversy  as  to  what  he  said. 

The  Supreme  Court  intimates  that  it  was  necessary  to  show  that 
the  defendants  were  actually  harmed  by  the  illegalities  and  errors 
they  complained  of  in  relation  to  the  jury.  The  Court  may  make 
that  ruling  a  precedent,  but  never  can  make  it  law.  It  is  not  any- 
where in  Christendom  that  a  man  condemned  to  die  shall  show  in 
his  appeal  that  he  was  harmed  by  the  selection  of  a  partial,  preju- 
diced, or  illegal  jury.  The  sentence  of  death  runs  through  all  the 
record,  and  is  of  itself  an  omnipresent  showing  of  harm.  The  law 
presumes  harm  to  every  man  sentenced  to  death  by  a  vitiated  or 
illegal  jury.  Suppose  that  Eyce  had  selected  persons  disqualified 
and  incompetent  by  law,  and  that  one  of  those  persons  had  actually 
served  upon  the  jury,  will  the  Supreme  Court  pretend  that  a  man 
condemned  to  death  by  a  jury  thus  imperfect  must  show  that  he 
has  been  harmed  by  the  wrongful  selection  before  he  can  take  ad- 
vantages of  the  error  ?  The  error  being  shown,  the  law  raises  a 
conclusive  presumption  of  harm  to  the  defendant.  There  may  be 
error  without  prejudice  even  in  capital  cases,  but  in  the  Anarchist 
case  there  was  too  much  of  it.  It  was  grim  sport  to  mock  men  on 
the  steps  of  the  gallows  by  telling  them  that  they  were  not  harmed 
by  the  errors  and  illegalities  perpetrated  at  their  trial.  What  greater 
harm  can  befall  a  man  than  to  die  upon  the  scaffold  ? 

The  Supreme  Court  pieced  out  the  case  for  the  prosecution  by 
the  following  amendment : 

In  addition  to  this,  it  is  not  shown  that  the  defendants  served  Favor  with 
a  subprena,  so  as  to  lay  a  foundation  for  compelling  his  attendance. 

This  curious  reason  never  presented  itself  either  to  the  District 
Attorney  or  the  Court  below.  Naturally  it  would  not,  because  the 
defendants  had  no  power  to  serve  Favor  with  a  subpoena.  The  trial 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  149 

was  over ;  they  had  no  case  before  the  Court  except  a  motion  for  a 
new  trial,  supported  as  to  matters  outside  the  record  by  affidavit. 
They  could  not  introduce  unwilling  testimony  to  sustain  the  motion 
except  by  order  of  the  Court,  and  this  order  they  were  seeking  to 
obtain.  Their  showing  was  that  Favor  would  not  voluntarily  give 
evidence,  nor  make  affidavit,  and  they  prayed  the  Court  to  order  a 
subposna  to  be  served  upon  him  that  he  might  be  compelled  to  ap- 
pear and  testify. 

When,  on  the  9th  of  November,  intercession  was  made  to  the 
Governor  for  a  commutation  of  the  sentence,  this  accusing  affidavit 
was  read  to  him  by  Capt.  Black.  He  was  evidently  unprepared  for 
it,  and  it  startled  him  like  a  sting  of  electricity.  He  had  steeled 
himself  against  everything  but  the  clamor  of  the  irrational  crowd, 
and  his  heart  was  closed.  With  strong  self-discipline  he  had  nerved 
himself  to  show  no  sign  of  human  feeling,  but  this  affidavit  stirred 
him  beyond  control,  and  in  a  moment  of  emotion  he  exclaimed, 
"Was  that  statement  offered  in  Court  ?"  Being  assured  that  it  was, 
he  saw  that  he  had  betrayed  himself  into  the  hands  of  amnesty. 
He  escaped  again  in  a  moment  and  showed  no  further  symptoms  of 
palpitation  of  the  heart.  He  retired  into  his  gloomy  fortifications, 
and  there  he  shut  himself  up  until  the  end,  deaf  to  reason,  justice, 
law,  mercy,  and  religion.  That  morning  he  offered  a  very  good 
resemblance  to  King  George  IV.  as  he  is  described  in  the  satire  of 
Thomas  Moore: 

His  table  strewed  with  tea  and  toast, 
Death  warrants  and  the  Morning  Post. 

He  dismissed  the  pleading  delegations,  and  the  next  day  he 
sent  the  death  warrants  to  Chicago. 

It  is  in  the  record  and  not  to  be  denied  that  the  State's  Attor- 
ney, in  his  eager  zeal  for  death,  broke  through  the  lines  of  profes- 
sional etiquette,  which  the  humane  spirit  of  the  law  has  thrown 
around  his  office.  It  is  laid  down  in  the  books  that  the  prosecuting 
attorney,  like  the  Judge,  shall  stand  absolutely  impartial  between  the 
prisoner  and  the  State.  He  must  not  revile  the  prisoner,  nor  insult 
him.  He  must  not  make  fact-statements  in  his  argument,  nor  offer 
to  the  jury  hia  own  opinion  on  the  question  of  guilt  or  innocence, 
because,  if  he  is  a  popular  man,  in  whom  the  jury  have  great  con- 
fidence, his  mere  opinion  may  have  greater  weight  than  the  sworn 
testimony  of  other  men.  All  these  rules  were  violated  in  this  case 


150  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

against  the  protest  of  the  defendants'  counsel,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  decides  that  the  "improprieties"  were  not  serious  enough  to 
affect  the  judgment.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  once 
decided  that  "a  man  had  a  right  to  quibble  for  his  life/'  This  is 
true,  but  it  is  a  ghastly  sight  to  see  a  lawyer  quibble  for  the  death 
of  his  fellow-men. 


In  selecting  a  jury  to  try  the  Anarchists  the  principle  of  impar- 
tiality was  violated.  The  form  of  the  statute  may  have  been  ob- 
served, but  the  spirit  of  the  law  was  not.  Whole  classes  of  qualified 
persons  were  stricken  from  the  jury  lists,  or  at  least  they  were  not 
summoned  in  the  case,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing.  Unfort- 
unately these  were  what  are  known  as  the  "working  classes,"  the 
classes  to  which  the  defendants  belonged,  and  of  which,  in  part* 
they  were  supposed  to  be  representative  in  Socialistic  and  political 
opinions.  These  were  disqualified  for  jurymen  as  effectually  as  if 
they  had  been  disfranchised  altogether.  The  whole  machinery  of 
legal  administration  was  in  the  hands  of  the  prosecution;  and  a 
common  bailiff,  a  subordinate  part  of  that  machinery,  was  made 
absolute  dictator  and  autocrat  of  a  jury.  The  honest  safeguard 
known  as  "drawing"  for  a  jury  was  not  observed.  The  equal  chance 
which  the  "drawing"  of  jurors  from  a  list  of  qualified  voters  gives 
to  both  sides  was  not  given  to  the  defendants.  The  jurors  were  not 
"drawn,"  but  "summoned/'  They  were  summoned  by  a  mere 
bailiff,  man  by  man,  at  his  own  arbitrary  will  and  pleasure.  After 
he  had  strained  and  filtered  the  jury  population  of  every  man 
belonging  to  the  same  classes  as  the  defendants,  the  prosecution 
was  allowed  to  filter  even  his  unfair  selection  by  120  peremptory 
challenges.  Even  of  the  twelve  who  tried  the  case,  nine  confessed 
themselves  prejudiced  against  Socialists,  Anarchists,  and  Commun- 
ists, while  some  of  them  even  admitted  that  they  were  prejudiced 
against  the  defendants.  Yet  this  is  the  jury  "whose  province  it  was" 
to  pass  upon  all  the  evidence,  and  who  were  "warranted  in  believ- 
ing" anything  against  the  defendants.  To  hang  men  on  the  verdict 
of  a  jury  thus  chosen  and  impaneled  will  be  a  stain  upon  the 
jurisprudence  of  Illinois  long  after  all  the  actors  in  the  drama  shall 
have  passed  away. 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  151 

Wherever  the  evidence  is  weak,  false,  contradictory,  improb- 
able, or  impossible,  redress  is  denied  on  the  ground  that  it  was  "the 
province  of  the  jury"  to  act  upon  it  in  their  own  way.  The  testi- 
mony is  important  if  true,  reasons  the  Supreme  Court,  unimport- 
ant if  false ;  there  is  enough  without  it. 

In  that  very  dangerous  way  a  jury  manifestly  unfriendly  to  the 
defendants  is  made  sole  critic  of  the  evidence.  It  is  in  the  appeal 
of  the  defendants  that  the  jury  itself  was  not  "impartial,"  that  it 
was  a  class  jury,  not  fairly  chosen  from  'the  body  of  the  county ;" 
that  care  was  taken  to  select  persons  hostile  to  the  accused  even, 
from  the  classes  drawn  upon,  and  that  the  State  was  allowed  a 
greater  number  of  challenges  than  the  law  intended;  a  number 
which,  whether  legal  or  not,  gave  the  prosecution  an  unfair  ad- 
vantage. Yet  this  jury  is  given  absolute  ownership  of  the  evidence 
in  the  case,  to  use  it  at  their  own  discretion  for  one  side  and  against 
the  other,  even  to  the  hanging  of  seven  men.  The  Supreme  Court 
abdicates  its  power  to  pass  upon  the  character,  quality,  and  suffi- 
ciency of  evidence  in  the  most  important  case  ever  tried  in  the  State 
of  Illinois.  This  in  tiresome  phraseology,  repeated  over  and  over 
again. 

''The  jury  were  warranted  in  believing  that  the  bomb  was  made 
by  Lingg;"  "the  jury  were  warranted  in  believing  that  the  Haymarket 
meeting  was  not  intended  to  be  peaceable ;"  "the  jury  were  warranted 
in  believing  that  the  bomb  was  thrown  and  the  shots  fired  as  a  part 
of  the  execution  of  the  conspiracy ;"  "it  was  for  the  jury  to  say 
whether  the  evidence  for  the  defence  was  more  worthy  of  belief;" 
"the  jury  had  the  right  to  look  at  it  in  the  light  of  the  principles  ad- 
vocated by  the  International  organization ;"  "it  was  for  the  jury  to 
say  how  far  that  fatal  result  may  have  been  brought  about  through 
the  influence  of  the  utterances  put  forth  by  the  organs  here  desig- 
nated;" "the  jury  were  warranted  in  believing  that  Parsons  was  as- 
sociated with  the  man  who  threw  the  bomb ;''  "it  was  for  the  jury  to 
say  whether  any  others  than  the  members  of  that  conspiracy  had 
undertaken  to  make  such  weapons;"  and  so  on,  in  monotonous 
formulary,  page  after  page.  A  jury  which  the  defendants  allege 
was  not  impartial  is  made  infallible  judge  of  the  legal  and  moral 
quality  of  all  the  evidence. 


152  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

The  State's  Attorney,  knowing  that  the  Judge  had  made  a  mis- 
take in  ruling  that  the  Court  had  no  power  to  compel  Otis  Favor  to 
appear  and  testify,  deserted  his  friend  and  abandoned  in  the  Su- 
preme Court  the  erroneous  ruling  which  he  had  taken  advantage  of 
in  the  Court  below.  He  left  it  outside  on  the  door-step,  like  an 
illegimate  waif,  and  substituted  another  reason  for  it.  He  said  that 
it  was  a  matter  in  the  discretion  of  the  Court  and  that — 

The'Court  exercised  the  proper  discretion  in  refusing  to  have  anything 
to  do  with  it,  because  no  injury  and  no  prejudice  had  resulted  from  the  alleged 
conduct  of  said  bailiff  against  any  defendant. 

He  knew  when  he  wrote  that  in  his  brief  that  the  jury  thus  un- 
fairly chosen  by  the  bailiff  had  actually  condemned  seven  men  to 
death.  A  mere  trifle,  your  honors,  a  mere  trifle,  from  which  "no 
injury  and  no  prejudice  has  resulted. 

Still  feeling  insecure,  the  State's  Attorney,  with  daring  hardi- 
hood, confessed  the  accusation  he  was  unable  to  deny.  With  a 
brazen  effrontery  that  reminds  us  of  the  crown  prosecutors  of  the 
olden  time,  be  asserted  that  the  bailiff  acted  well.  Quoting  the 
charge  against  Eyce,  he  said : 

There  is  nothing  objectionable  in  all  this,  if  true,  and  it  means  simply  that 
Ryce  was  endeavoring  to  summon  intelligent  and  competent  jurors,  against 
whom  no  ground  of  objection  and  no  cause  of  challenge  could  be  laid.  The 
statute  says  that  he  shall  summon  persons  having  the  'qualifications  of  jurors,' 
etc.  Did  counsel  expect  him  to  summon  disqualified  and  incompetent  jurors  ? 

The  boast  of  Eyce  was  that  he  was  summoning  such  jurors  as 
the  defendants  would  be  "compelled  to  challenge;"  the  State's  At- 
torney says  that  this  "simply  means  that  he  was  endeavoring  to 
secure  jurors  against  whom  no  cause  of  challenge  could  be  laid." 
Such  wrenching  of  words  and  distortion  of  their  meaning  could 
only  be  ventured  on  by  an  attorney  confident  that  the  Court  was 
with  him,  and  that  his  case  was  safe. 


An  opinion  is  prevalent  in  Illinois  that  Parsons  was  hanged  for 
obstinacy ;  that  he  defied  the  commonwealth,  and  scorned  to  beg 
for  his  life,  therefore  the  proud  State  strangled  him  in  its  rage.  It 
is  claimed  that  under  the  law  the  Governor  could  not  reprieve  him 
until  he  begged  for  mercy  and  a  commutation  of  the  sentence. 
This  mistake  has  been  petted  by  the  newspapers  in  order  to  lighten 


THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT.  153 

the  guilt  of  the  November  tragedy  and  transfer  the  sin  of  this 

man's  death  from  the  Governor  to  the  victim.    The  excuse  is  false 

and  ignominious.    When  the  attorneys  and  friends  of  Parsons 

asked  for  his  life,  the  law  was  complied  with  in  the  letter  and  the 

spirit. 

*         #         #***«•#***# 

A  man  may  not  lawfully  commit  suicide,  neither  can  he  make 
a  present  of  his  life  to  the  State ;  and  should  he  tender  the  gift,  the 
commonwealth  must  not  accept  it.  This  is  religion ;  and  there  is 
law  for  it  also.* 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON  AND  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS. 

To  hang  Parsons  and  spare  Fielden  was  illogical,  and  the  rea- 
sons given  for  the  anomaly  change  the  execution  of  November  11 
into  a  sacrifice,  a  punishment  into  a  martyrdom.  Judge  Gary  and 
Mr.  Grinnell  begged  clemency  for  Fielden  on  the  ground  that  the 
evidence  did  not  justify  the  verdict  and  the  sentence.  The  evidence 
that  convicted  Fielden  convicted  the  others,  and  the  argument  for 
him  applies  to  all. 

If  Fielden  is  innocent  of  murder,  why  is  he  imprisoned  in  the 
penitentiary ;  and  why  was  Parsons  hanged  ?  Truly,  there  must  be 
guilt  somewhere.  The  Supreme  Court  makes  Parsons  guilty  on  the 
ground  that  he  was  present  at  the  Haymarket  meeting  and  spoke. 
The  Court  acknowledged  that  he  was  in  Cincinnati  on  Monday,  and 
knew  nothing  at  all  about  the  pretended  conspiracy  claimed  to  have 
been  formed  that  night.  It  was  conceded  that  the  speech  of  Par- 
sons was  moderate  in  tone ;  that  he  had  his  wife  and  children  with 
him ;  that  he  left  before  the  arrival  of  the  police,  did  no  pistol  shoot- 
ing, gave  no  signal,  and  was  not  present  when  the  bomb  was  thrown. 
But  he  was  present  at  the  meeting  in  company  and  association  with 
Fielden,  and  thus  adopted  the  "conspiracy"  of  Monday  night,  al- 
though he  never  knew  a  word  about  it.  He  was  Fielden's  accom- 
plice, and  for  that  he  was  hanged.  After  the  acknowledgment  made 
by  Judge  Gary  and  Mr.  Grinnell,  there  is  literally  nothing  left 
against  either  Fielden  or  Parsons.  *  *  *  Seditious  writing  and 


*  The  General  here  gives  a  decision  from  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  sustaining  this  position. 


154  THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  JUDGMENT. 

inflammatory  speech  are  not  murder,  but  capital  punishment  in- 
flicted upon  men  for  either  offense  is  murder. 

Had  the  Illinois  rulings  been  good  law  in  Jefferson's  time  he 
might  have  been  hanged  at  any  period  in  his  active  political  career. 
He  was  an  Anarchist ;  not  an  amateur,  speculative  Anarchist,  but  a 
physical-force  Anarchist,  and  an  avowed  enemy  of  Government. 
His  biographers  have  tried  to  explain  away  the  "no  Government" 
theory  of  Jefferson,  but  that  he  cherished  and  advocated  the  theory 
cannot  be  denied.  The  following  quotation  is  not  from  the  Arbeiter- 
Zeitung  nor  the  Alarm;  it  is  from  Jefferson's  letter  excusing  the 
Massachusetts  rebellion ;  not  the  rebellion  against  Great  Britain, 
but  the  rebellion  against  the  United  States : 

God  forbid  we  should  ever  be  twenty  years  without  such  a  rebellion.  *  *  * 
What  country  can  preserve  its  liberties  if  its  rulers  are  not  warned  from  time 
to  time  that  this  people  preserve  the  spirit  of  resistance?  Let  them  take  arms. 
What  signify  a  few  lives  lost  in  a  century  or  two?  The  tree  of  liberty  must  be 
refreshed  from  time  to  time  by  the  blood  of  patriots  and  tyrants.  It  is  its 
natural  manure. 

Did  Fielden,  Parsons,  or  Spies  utter  anything  more  sanguinary 
than  that,  or  anything  more  Anarchical  than  this : 

I  am  convinced  that  those  societies  which  live  without  Government  enjoy 
in  their  general  mass  an  infinitely  greater  degree  of  happiness  than  those  who 
live  under  the  European  Governments.  Among  the  former  public  opinion  is 
in  the  place  of  law,  restraining  morals  as  powerfully  as  law  ever  did  anywhere. 
Societies  exist  in  three  forms: 

1.  Without  Governments. 

2.  Under  Governments  wherein  every  one  has  a  just  influence. 

3.  Under  Governments  of  force. 

It  is  a  problem  not  clear  in  my  mind  tnat  the  first  condition  is  not  the  best. 

The  question  is  not  whether  those  opinions  were  wipe  or  foolish, 
wicked,  or  charitable,  but  had  Mr.  Jefferson  the  right  to  express 
them?  And  having  expressed  them,  could  he  have  been  hanged 
because  riots  followed  them  in  which  "the  tree  of  liberty"  was 
"refreshed  with  the  blood"  of  some  policeman  or  other  agent  of  the 
Government  ? 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  155 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ALBERT  R.  PARSONS'  SPEECH  IN  COURT. 

THE  VERDICT  WAS  A  VERDICT  OF  PASSION — THE  CHICAGO  CITIZENS'  AS- 
SOCIATION DEMANDS  OUR  EXTINCTION  BY  AN  IGNOMINIOUS  DEATH — 
THE  WAGE  SYSTEM,  ITS  FRUITION  OR  BIRTH — HELD  IN  LOATHSOME 
CONTEMPT  WITHOUT  A  CHANCE  TO  CONTRADICT  A  WORD — "THE 
ALARM"  A  FREE  PRESS  AND  FREE  SPEECH  PAPER — A  STREET  RIOT 
DRILL  ON  THANKSGIVING  DAY — THE  STARS  AND  STRIPES  IN  FORMER 
DAYS  FLOATED  ON  EVERY  WATER  AS  THE  EMBLEM  OF  THE  FREE — 
CAN  A  MAN  VOTE  HIMSELF  BREAD,  OR  CLOTH,  OR  SHELTER — GUN- 
POWDER THE  INAUGURATOR  OF  A  NEW  ERA — DYNAMITE  COMES  AS. 
THE  EMANCIPATOR  OF  MAN — FOR  MY  SURRENDER  I  HAVE  No  RE- 
GRETS TO  OFFER. 

FKEEDOM. 

Toil  and  pray!  The  world  cries  cold  ; 
Speed  thy  prayer,  for  time  is  gold  ; 
At  thy  door  Need's  subtle  tread  ; 
Pray  in  haste !  for  time  is  bread. 

And  thou  plow'st  and  thou  hew'st, 
And  thou  rivet'st  and  sewest, 
And  thou  harvestest  in  vain  ; 
Speak!    O,  man ;  what  is  thy  gain? 

Fly'st  the  shuttle  day  and  night, 
Heav'st  the  ores  of  earth  to  light, 
Fill'st  with  treasures  plenty's  horn — 
Brim'st  it  o'er  with  wine  and  corn. 

But  who  hath  thy  meal  prepared, 
Festive  garments  with  thee  shared  ; 
And  where  is  thy  cheerful  hearth, 
Thy  good  shield  in  battle  dearth? 


156  A.  n.  PARSONS' 

Thy  creations  round  thee  see-^ 

All  thy  work,  but  nought  for  thee ! 

Yea,  of  all  the  chains  alone 

Thy  hand  forged,  these  are  thine  own. 

Chains  that  round  the  body  cling, 
Chains  that  lame  the  spirit's  wing, 
Chains  that  infants'  feet,  indeed, 
Clog!   0,  workman!  Lo!  Thy  meed. 

What  ye  rear  and  bring  to  light, 
Profits  by  the  idle  wight, 
What  ye  weave  of  diverse  hue, 
'Tis  a  curse — your  only  due. 

What  ye  build,  no  room  insures, 
Not  a  sheltering  roof  to  yours, 
And  by  haughty  ones  are  trod — 
Ye,  whose  toil  their  feet  hath  shod. 

Human  bees!    Has  nature's  thrift 
Given  thee  naught  but  honey's  gift?" 
See !  the  drones  are  on  the  wing. 
Have  you  lost  the  will  to  sting? 

Man  of  labor,  up,  arise! 
Know  the  might  that  in  thee  lies, 
Wheel  and  shaft  are  set  at  rest 
At  thy  powerful  arm's  behest. 

Thine  oppressor's  hand  recoils 
When  thou,  weary  of  thy  toil, 
Shun'st  thy  plough;  thy  task  begun 
When  thou  speak'st :  Enough  is  done! 

Break  this  two-fold  yoke  in  twain  ; 
Break  thy  want's  enslaving  chair  ; 
Break  thy  slavery's  want  and  dread  ; 
Bread  is  freedom,  freedom  bread. 

That  poem  epitomizes  the  aspirations,  the  hope,  the  need  of  the  working 
classes,  not  alone  of  America,  but  of  the  civilized  world. 

YOUR  HONOR  : 
If  there  is  one  distinguishing  characteristic  which  has  made 
itself  prominent  in  the  conduct  of  this  trial  it  has  been  the 
passion,  the  heat,  and  the  anger,  the  violence  both  to  sentiment 
and  to  person,  of  everything  connected  with  this  case.    You  ask  me 


SPEECH  IN  COUET.  157 

why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be  pronounced  upon  me,  or,  what 
is  tantamount  to  the  same  thing,  you  ask  me  why  you  should  give 
me  a  new  trial  in  order  that  I  might  establish  my  innocence  and 
the  ends  of  justice  be  subserved.  I  answer  you  and  say  that  this 
verdict  is  the  verdict  of  passion,  born  in  passion,  nurtured  in  passion, 
and  is  the  sum  total  of  the  organized  passion  of  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago. For  this  reason  I  ask  your  suspension  of  the  sentence,  and  a 
new  trial.  This  is  one  among  the  many  reasons  which  I  hope  to 
present  before  I  conclude.  Now,  what  is  passion  ?  Passion  is  the 
suspension  of  reason ;  in  a  mob  upon  the  streets,  in  the  broils  of 
the  saloon,  in  the  quarrels  on  the  sidewalk,  where  men  throw  aside 
their  reason  and  resort  to  feelings  of  exasperation,  we  have  passion. 
There  is  a  suspension  of  the  elements  of  judgment,  of  calmness,  of 
discrimination  requisite  to  arrive  at  the  truth  and  the  establishment 
of  justice.  I  hold  that  you  cannot  dispute  the  charge  which  I  make, 
that  this  trial  has  been  submerged,  immersed  in  passion  from  its 
inception  to  its  close,  and  even  to  this  hour,  standing  here  upon  the 
scaffold  as  I  do,  with  the  hangman  awaiting  me  with  his  halter, 
there  are  those  who  claim  to  represent  public  sentiment  in  this 
city — and  I  now  speak  of  the  capitalistic  press,  that  vile  and  in- 
famous organ  of  monopoly,  of  hired  liars,  the  people's  oppressor — 
even  to  this  day  these  papers,  standing  where  I  do,  with  my  seven 
condemned  colleagues,  are  clamoring  for  our  blood  in  the  heat  and 
violence  of  passion.  Who  can  deny  this  ?  Certainly  not  this  Court. 
The  Court  is  fully  aware  of  these  facts. 

In  order  that  I  may  place  myself  properly  before  you,  it  is  ne- 
cessary, in  vindication  of  whatever  I  may  have  said  or  done  in  the 
history  of  my  past  life,  that  I  should  enter  somewhat  into  details, 
and  I  claim,  even  at  the  expense  of  being  lengthy,  the  ends  cf 
justice  require  that  this  shall  be  done. 

For  the  past  twenty  years  my  life  has  been  closely  identified 
with,  and  I  have  actively  participated  in,  what  is  known  as  the 
labor  movement  in  America.  I  have  some  knowledge  of  that  move- 
ment in  consequence  of  this  experience  and  of  the  careful  study 
which  opportunity  has  afforded  me  from  time  to  time  to  give  to  the 
matter,  and  in  what  I  have  to  say  upon  this  subject  relating  to  the 
labor  movement,  or  to  myself  as  connected  with  it  in  this  trial  and 
before  this  bar,  I  will  speak  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  be  the  con- 
sequences what  they  may. 


158  A.  K.  PARSONS' 

The  United  States  census  for  1880  reports  that  there  are  in  the 
United  States  16,200,000  wage-workers.  These  are  the  persons  who, 
by  their  industry,  create  all  the  wealth  of  this  country.  And  now 
before  I  say  anything  further  it  may  be  necessary,  in  order  to  clearly 
understand  what  I  am  going  to  state  further  on,  for  me  to  define 
what  I  mean  and  what  is  meant  in  the  labor  movement  by  these 
words,  wage-worker.  A  wage-worker  is  one  who  works  for  wages 
and  who  has  no  other  means  of  subsistence  than  by  the  selling  of 
his  daily  toil  from  hour  to  hour,  day  to  day,  week  to  week,  month 
to  month,  and  year  to  year,  as  the  case  may  be.  Their  whole 
property  consists  entirely  of  their  labor,  strength,  and  skill— or 
rather,  they  possess  nothing  but  their  empty  hands.  They  live  only 
when  afforded  an  opportunity  to  work,  and  this  opportunity  must  be 
procured  from  the  possessors  of  the  means  of  subsistence — capital — 
before  their  right  to  live  at  all  or  the  opportunity  to  do  so  is  pos- 
sessed. Now,  there  are  16,200,000  of  these  people  in  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  census  of  1880.  Among  this  number  are 
9,000,000  men,  and  reckoning  five  persons  to  each  family,  they  re- 
present 45,000,000  of  our  population.  It  is  claimed  that  there  are 
between  eleven  and  twelve  millions  of  voters  in  the  United  States. 
Now,  out  of  these  12,000,000,  9,000,000  of  these  voters  are  wage- 
workers.  The  remainder  of  the  16,200,000  is  composed  of  the  women, 
boys,  and  girls — the  children — employed  in  the  factories,  the  mines, 
farms,  and  the  various  avocations  of  this  country.  The  class  of 
people — the  producing  class — who  alone  do  all  the  productive  labor 
of  this  country,  are  the  hirelings  and  dependents  of  the  propertied 
class. 

Your  honor,  1  have,  as  a  workingman,  espoused  what  I  con- 
ceive to  be  the  just  claims  of  the  working  class ;  I  have  defended 
their  right  to  liberty  and  insisted  upon  their  right  to  control  their 
own  labor  and  the  fruits  thereof,  and  in  the  statement  that  I  am  to 
make  here  before  this  Court  upon  the  question  why  I  should  not  be 
sentenced,  or  why  I  should  be  permitted  to  have  a  new  trial,  you 
will  also  be  made  to  understand  why  there  is  a  class  of  men  in  this 
country  who  come  to  your  honor  and  appeal  to  you  not  to  grant  us 
a  new  trial.  I  believe,  sir,  that  the  representatives  of  that  mill- 
ionaire organization  of  Chicago,  known  as  the  Chicago  Citiziens' 
Association,  stand  to  a  man  demanding  of  your  honor  our  immediate 
extinction  and  suppression  by  an  ignominious  death. 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  159 

Now,  I  stand  here  as  one  of  the  people,  a  common  man,  a 
workingman,  one  of  the  masses,  and  I  ask  you  to  give  ear  to  what 
I  have  to  say.  You  stand  a's  a  bulwark ;  you  are  as  a  brake  between 
them  and  us.  You  are  here  as  the  representative  of  justice,  hold- 
ing the  poised  scales  in  your  hands.  You  are  expected  to  look 
neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  but  to  that  by  which  justice,  and 
justice  alone,  shall  be  subserved.  The  conviction  of  a  man,  your 
honor,  does  not  necessarily  prove  that  he  is  guilty.  Your  law  books 
are  filled  with  instances  where  men  have  been  carried  to  the  scaf- 
fold and  after  their  death  it  has  been  proven  that  their  execution 
was  a  judicial  murder.  Now,  what  end  can  be  subserved  in  hurry- 
ing this  matter  through  in  the  manner  in  which  it  has  been  done  ? 
Where  are  the  ends  of  justice  subserved,  and  where  is  truth  found 
in  hurrying  seven  human  beings  at  the  rate  of  express  speed  upon 
a  fast  train  to  the  scaffold  and  an  ignominious  death  ?  Why,  if  your 
honor  please,  the  very  methods  of  our  extermination,  the  deep  dam- 
nation of  its  taking  off,  appeals  to  your  honor's  sense  of  justice,  of 
rectitude,  and  of  honor.  A  judge  may  also  be  an  unjust  man. 
Such  things  have  been  known.  We  have,  in  our  histories,  heard  of 
Lord  Jeffreys.  It  need  not  follow  that  because  a  man  is  a  judge  he 
is  also  just.  As  everyone  knows,  it  has  long  since  become  the 
practice  in  American  politics  for  the  candidates  for  judgeships 
throughout  the  United  States  to  be  named  by  corporation  and  mo- 
nopoly influences,  and  it  is  a  well-known  secret  that  more  than  one 
of  our  Chief  Justices  have  been  appointed  to  their  seats  upon  the 
bench  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  at  the  instance  of  the 
leading  railway  magnates  of  America — the  Huntingtons  and  Jay 
Goulds.  Therefore  the  people  are  beginning  to  lose  confidence  in 
some  of  our  courts  of  law. 

Now,  I  have  not  been  able  to  gather  together  and  put  in  a  con- 
secutive shape  these  thoughts  which  I  wish  to  present  here  for  your 
consideration.  They  have  been  put  together  hurriedly  in  the  last 
few  days,  since  we  began  to  come  in  here — first,  because  I  did  not 
know  what  you  would  do,  nor  what  the  position  of  your  honor  would 
be  in  the  case ;  and  secondly,  because  I  did  not  know  upon  what 
ground  the  deduction  of  the  prosecution  would  be  made  denying  us 
the  right  of  a  rehearing,  and,  therefore,  if  the  method  of  the  presen- 
tation of  this  matter  be  somewhat  disconnected  and  disjointed,  it 
may  be  ascribed  to  that  fact,  over  which  I  have  had  no  control. 


160  A.  E.  PARSONS' 

I  maintain  that  our  execution,  as  the  matter  stands  just  now, 
would  be  a  judicial  murder,  rank  and  foul,  and  judicial  murder  is 
far  more  infamous  than  lynch  law — far  worse.  Bear  in  mind, 
please,  this  trial  was  conducted  by  a  mob,  prosecuted  by  a  mob,  by 
the  shrieks  and  the  howls  of  a  mob — an  organized,  powerful  mob. 
But  that  trial  is  now  over.  You  sit  here  judicially,  calmly,  quietly, 
and  it  is  now  for  you  to  look  at  this  thing  from  the  standpoint  of 
reason  and  common  sense.  There  is  one  peculiarity  about  the  case 
that  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to.  It  is  the  manner  and  the 
method  of  its  prosecution !  On  the  one  side,  the  attorneys  for  the 
prosecution  conducted  this  case  from  the  standpoint  of  capitalists 
as  against  laborers.  On  the  other  side,  the  attorneys  for  the  de- 
fence conducted  this  case  as  a  defence  against  murder — not  for 
laborers  and  not  against  capitalists. 

The  prosecution  in  this  case  throughout  has  been  a  capitalistic 
prosecution,  inspired  by  the  instinct  of  capitalism,  and  I  mean  by 
that  by  class  feelings,  by  a  dictatorial  right  to  rule,  and  a  denial  to 
common  people  the  right  to  say  anything  or  have  anything  to  say 
to  these  men,  by  that  class  of  persons  who  think  that  working  people 
have  but  one  right  and  one  duty  to  perform,  viz. :  Obedience.  They 
conducted  this  trial  from  that  standpoint  throughout,  and,  as  was 
very  truthfully  stated  by  my  comrade  Fielden,  we  were  prosecuted 
ostensibly  for  murder  until  near  the  end  of  the  trial,  when  all  at 
once  the  jury  is  commanded — yea,  commanded — to  render  a  verdict 
against  us  as  Anarchists. 

Your  honor,  you  are  aware  of  this ;  you  know  this  to  be  the 
truth ;  you  sat  and  heard  it  all.  I  will  not  make  a  statement  but 
what  will  be  in  accord  with  the  facts,  and  what  I  do  say  is  said  for 
the  purpose  of  refreshing  your  memory  and  asking  you  to  look  at 
both  sides  of  this  matter  and  view  it  from  the  standpoint  of  reason 
and  common  sense. 

Now,  the  money-makers,  the  business  men,  those  people  who 
deal  in  stocks  and  bonds,  the  speculators  and  employers,  all  that 
class  of  men  known  as  the  money-making  class,  have  no  conception 
of  this  labor  question ;  they  don't  understand  what  it  means.  To 
use  the  street  parlance,  with  many  of  them  it  is  a  difficult  matter  to 
"catch  onto"  it,  and  they  are  perverse  also ;  iheywill  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  it.  They  don't  want  to  know  anything  about  it,  and  they 
won't  hear  anything  about  it,  and  they  propose  to  club,  lock  up. 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  161 

and,  if  necessary,  strangle  those  who  insist  on  their  hearing  this 
question.  Can  it  be  any  longer  denied  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
the  labor  question  in  this  country  ? 

I  am  an  Anarchist.  Now  strike !  But  hear  me  before  you 
strike.  What  is  Socialism,  or  Anarchism  ?  Briefly  stated,  it  is  the 
right  of  the  toilers  to  the  free  and  equal  use  of  the  tools  of  pro- 
duction, and  the  right  of  the  producers  to  their  product.  That  is 
Socialism.  The  history  of  mankind  is  one  of  growth.  It  has  been 
evolutionary  and  revolutionary.  The  dividing  line  between  evolution 
and  revolution,  or  that  imperceptible  boundary  line  where  one  begins 
and  the  other  ends,  can  never  be  denned.  Who  believed  at  the 
time  that  our  forefathers  tossed  the  tea  into  the  Boston  harbor  that 
it  meant  the  first  revolt  of  the  revolution  separating  this  continent 
from  the  dominion  of  George  III.  and  founding  this  Eepublic  here 
in  which  we,  their  descendants,  live  to-day?  Evolution  and  revo- 
lution are  synonymous.  Evolution  is  the  incubatory  state  of  revo- 
lution. The  birth  is  the  revolution — its  process  the  evolution. 
What  is  the  history  of  man  with  regard  to  the  laboring  classes  ? 

Originally  the  earth  and  its  contents  were  held  in  common  by  all 
men.  Then  came  a  change  brought  about  by  violence,  robbery  and 
wholesale  murder,  called  war.  Later,  but  still  way  back  in  history,  we 
find  that  there  were  but  two  classes  in  the  world — slaves  and  masters. 
Time  rolled  on  and  we  find  a  labor  system  of  serfdom.  This  serf- 
labor  system  existed  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
and  throughout  the  world  the  serf  had  a  right  to  the  soil  on  which 
he  lived.  The  lord  of  the  land  could  not  exclude  him  from  its  use. 
But  with  the  discovery  of  America  and  the  developments  which 
followed  that  discovery  and  its  settlement,  a  century  or  two  after- 
wards, the  gold  found  in  Mexico  and  Peru  by  the  invading  hosts  of 
Cortez,  and  Pizarro  who  carried  back  to  Europe  this  precious  metal, 
infused  new  vitality  into  the  stagnant  commercial  blood  of  Europe 
and  set  in  motion  those  wheels  which  have  rolled  on  and  on,  until 
to-day  commerce  covers  the  face  of  the  earth — time  is  annihilated 
and  distance  is  known  no  more.  Following  the  abolition  of  the 
serfdom  system  was  the  establishment  of  the  wage-labor  system. 
This  found  its  fruition,  or  birth,  rather,  in  the  French  revolution  of 
1789  and  1793.  It  was  then  for  the  first  time  that  civil  and  political 
liberty  was  established  in  Europe. 

We  see,  by  a  mire  glance  back  into  history,  that  the  sixteenth 


162  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

century  was  engaged  in  a  struggle  for  religious  freedom  and  the 
right  of  conscience — mental  liberty.  Following  that,  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries, was  the  struggle  throughout  France 
which  resulted  in  the  etablishment  of  the  Republic  and  the  founding 
of  the  right  of  political  liberty.  The  struggle  to-day,  which  follows 
on  in  the  line  of  progress,  and  in  the  logic  of  events,  the  industrial 
problem,  which  is  here  in  this  court-room,  of  which  we  are  the  re- 
presentatives, and  of  which  the  State's  Attorney  has  said  we  were, 
by  the  grand  jury  selected  because  we  were  the  leaders  of  it,  and 
are  to  be  punished  and  consigned  to  an  ignominious  death  for  that 
reason,  that  the  wage  slaves  of  Chicago  and  of  America  may  be 
horrified,  terror- striken,  and  driven  like  "rats  back  to  their  holes," 
to  hunger,  slavery,  misery  and  death.  The  industrial  question, 
following  on  in  the  natural  order  of  events,  the  wage  system  of  in- 
dustry, is  now  up  for  consideration ;  it  presses  for  a  hearing ;  it 
demands  a  solution ;  it  cannot  be  throttled  by  this  District  Attor- 
ney, nor  all  the  District  Attorneys  upon  the  soil  of  America. 

Now,  what  is  this  labor  question  which  these  gentlemen  treat 
with  such  profound  contempt,  which  these  distinguished, "honorable" 
gentlemen  would  throttle  and  put  to  ignominious  death,  and  hurry 
us  like  "rats  to  our  holes  ?"  "What  is  it  ?  You  will  pardon  me  if  I 
exhibit  some  feeling  ?  I  have  sat  here  for  two  months,  and  these  men 
have  poured  their  vituperations  out  upon  my  head  and  I  have  not 
been  permitted  to  utter  a  single  word  in  my  own  defence.  For  two 
months  they  have  poured  their  poison  upon  me  and  my  colleagues. 
For  two  months  they  have  sat  here  and  spit  like  adders  the  vile 
poison  of  their  tongues,  and  if  men  could  have  been  placed  in  a 
mental  inquisition  and  tortured  to  death,  these  men  would  have 
succeeded  here  now — vilified,  misrepresented,  held  in  loathsome 
contempt  without  a  chance  to  speak  or  contradict  a  word.  There- 
fore, if  I  show  emotion,  it  is  because  of  this,  and  if  my  comrades 
and  colleagues  with  me  here  have  spoken  in  such  strains  as  these, 
it  is  because  of  this.  Pardon  us.  Look  at  it  from  the  right  stand- 
point. 

What  is  this  labor  question  ?  It  is  not  a  question  of  emotion ; 
the  labor  question  is  not  a  question  of  sentiment ;  it  is  not  a  relig- 
ious matter;  it  is  not  a  political  problem;  no,  sir,  it  is  a  stern 
economic  fact,  a  stubborn  and  immoveable  fact.  It  has,  it  is  true, 
its  emotional  phase;  it  has  its  sentimental,  religious,  political 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  168 

aspects,  but  the  sum  total  of  this  question  is  the  bre«d  and  butter 
question,  the  how  and  the  why  we  will  live  and  earn  our  daily  bread. 
This  is  the  labor  movement.  It  has  a  scientific  basis.  It  is  founded 
upon  fact,  and  I  have  been  to  considerable  pains  in  my  researches 
of  well-known  and  distinguished  authors  on  this  question  to  collect 
and  present  to  you  briefly  what  this  question  is  and  whaf  it  springs 
from.  I  will  first  explain  to  you  briefly  what  capital  is. 

Capital — artificial  capital — is  the  stored-up,  accumulated  sur- 
plus of  past  labor ;  capital  is  the  product  of  labor.  Its  function  is 
—that  is  the  function  of  capital  is — to  appropriate  or  confiscate  for 
its  own  use  and  benefit  the  "surplus"  labor  product  of  the  wealth- 
producer.  The  capitalistic  system  originated  in  the  forcible  seizure 
of  natural  opportunities  and  rights  by  a  few  and  then  converting 
those  things  into  special  privileges  which  have  since  become  "vested 
rights, "  formally  entrenched  behind  the  bulwarks  of  statute  law  and 
Government.  Capital  could  not  exist  unless  there  also  existed  a 
majority  class  who  were  propertyless,  that  is,  without  capital,  a 
class  whose  only  mode  of  existence  is  by  selling  their  labor  to  capi- 
talists. Capitalism  is  maintained,  fostered,  and  perpetuated  by 
law ;  in  fact,  capital  is  law — statute  law — and  law  is  capital. 

Now,  briefly  stated,  for  I  will  not  take  your  time  but  a  moment, 
what  is  labor  ?  Labor  is  a  commodity  and  wages  is  the  price  paid 
for  it.  The  owner  of  this  commodity — of  labor — sells  it,  that  is, 
himself,  to  the  owner  of  capital  in  order  to  live.  Labor  is  the  ex- 
pression of  energy,  the  power  of  the  laborer's  life.  This  energy  or 
power  he  must  sell  to  another  person  in  order  to  live.  It  is  his  only 
means  of  existence.  He  works  to  live,  but  his  work  is  not  simply 
a  part  of  his  life ;  it  is  the  sacrifice  of  it.  His  labor  is  a  commodity 
which  under  the  guise  of  free  labor,  he  is  forced  by  necessity  to 
liand  over  to  another  party.  The  whole  of  the  wage  laborer's 
activity  is  not  the  product  of  his  labor — far  from  it.  The  silk  he 
weaves,  the  palace  he  builds,  the  ores  he  digs  from  out  the  mines 
are  not  for  him — oh,  no.  The  only  thing  he  produces  for  himself  is 
liis  wage,  and  the  silk,  the  ores  and  the  palace  which  he  has  built 
are  simply  transformed  for  him  into  a  certain  kind  of  means  of 
existence,  namely,  a  cotton  shirt,  a  few  pennies,  and  the  mere 
tenantcy  of  a  lodging-house.  In  other  words,  his  wages  represent 
the  bare  necessities  of  his  existense  and  the  unpaid-for  or  "surplus" 
portion  of  his  labor  product  constitutes  the  vast  superabundant 


164  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

wealth  of  the  non-producing  or  capitalistic  class.  That  is  the  capi- 
talistic system  denned  in  a  few  words.  It  is  this  system  that  creates 
these  classes,  and  it  is  these  classes  that  produce  this  conflict. 
This  conflict  intensifies  as  the  power  of  the  privileged  classes  over 
the  non-possessing  or  propertyless  classes  increases  and  intensifies, 
and  this  power  increases  as  the  idle  few  become  richer  and  the  pro- 
ducing many  become  poorer,  and  this  produces  what  is  called  the 
labor  movement.  This  is  the  labor  question.  Wealth  is  power;  pov- 
erty is  weakness. 

If  I  had  time  I  might  stop  here  to  answer  some  suggestions  that 
probably  arise  in  the  minds  of  some  persons,  or  perhaps  of  your 
honor,  not  being  familiar  with  this  question.  I  imagine  I  hear 
your  honor  say,  "Why,  labor  is  free.  This  is  a  free  country."  Now, 
we  had  in  the  Southern  States  for  nearly  a  century  a  form  of  labor 
known  as  chattel  slave  labor.  That  has  been  abolished,  and  I  hear 
you  say  that  labor  is  free ;  that  the  war  has  resulted  in  establishing 
free  labor  all  over  America.  Is  this  true  ?  Look  at  it.  The  chattel 
slave  of  the  past — the  wage  slave  of  to-day ;  what  is  the  difference  ? 
The  master  selected  under  chattel  slavery  his  own  slaves.  Under 
the  wage  slavery  system  the  wage  slave  selects  his  master.  For- 
merly the  master  selected  the  slave ;  to-day  the  slave  selects  his 
master,  and  he  has  got  to  find  one  or  else  he  is  carried  down  here 
to  my  friend,  the  gaoler  and  occupies  a  cell  along  side  of  myself.  He 
is  compelled  to  find  one.  So  the  change  of  the  industrial  system, 
in  the  language  of  Jefferson  Davis,  ex-President  of  the  Southern 
Confederacy,  in  an  interview  with  the  New  York  Herald  upon  the 
question  of  the  chattel  slave  system  of  the  South  and  that  of  the 
so-called  "free-laborer,"  and  their  wages — Jefferson  Davis  has  stated 
positively  that  the  change  was  a  decided  benefit  to  the  former  chat- 
tel slave  owners,  who  would  not  exchange  the  new  system  of  wage 
labor  at  all  for  chattel  labor,  because  now  the  dead  had  to  bury 
themselves  and  the  sick  take  care  of  themselves,  and  now  they 
don't  have  to  employ  overseers  to  look  after  them.  They  give  them 
a  task  to  do — a  certain  amount  to  do.  They  say :  "Now,  here,  per- 
form this  piece  of  work  in  a  certain  length  of  time,"  and  if  you  don't 
(under  the  wage-system,  says  Mr.  Davis),  why,  when  you  come 
around  for  your  pay  next  Saturday  you  simply  find  in  the  envelope 
which  gives  you  your  money  a  note  which  informs  you  of  the  fact 
that  you  have  been  discharged.  Now,  Jefferson  Davis  admitted  in 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  165 

his  statement  that  the  leather-thong  dipped  in  salt  brine,  for  the 
chattel  slave,  had  been  exchanged  under  the  wage  system  for  the 
lash  of  hunger,  an  empty  stomach,  and  the  ragged  back  of  the  wage- 
earner  of  free-born  American  sovereign  citizens,  who,  according  to 
the  census  of  the  United  States  for  1880,  constitute  more  than  nine- 
tenths  of  our  entire  population.  But,  you  say,  the  wage  slave  had 
advantages  over  the  chattel  slave.  The  chattel  slave  couldn't  get 
away  from  it.  Well,  if  we  had  the  statistics,  I  believe  it  could  be 
shown  that  as  many  chattel  slaves  escaped  from  bondage  with  the 
bloodhounds  of  their  masters  after  them  as  they  tracked  their  way 
over  the  snow-beaten  rocks  of  Canada,  and  via  the  underground 
grape-vine  road — I  believe  the  statistics  would  show  to-day  that  as 
many  chattel  slaves  escaped  from  their  bondage  under  that  system 
as  can,  and  as  many  as  do,  escape  to-day  from  the  wage  bondage 
into  capitalistic  liberty. 

I  am  a  Socialist.  I  am  one  of  those,  although  myself  a  wage 
slave,  who  holds  that  it  is  wrong — wrong  to  myself,  wrong  to  my 
neighbor,  and  unjust  to  my  fellowmen— for  me  to  undertake  to  make 
my  escape  from  wage  slavery  by  becoming  a  master  and  an  owner  of 
others'  labor.  I  refuse  to  do  it.  Had  I  chosen  another  path  in  life, 
I  might  be  living  upon  an  avenue  of  the  city  of  Chicago  to-day,  sur- 
rounded in  my  beautiful  home  with  luxury  and  ease,  and  servants  to 
do  my  bidding.  But  I  chose  the  other  road,  and  instead  1  stand 
here  to-day  upon  the  scaffold,  as  it  were.  This  is  my  crime.  Before 
high  heaven  this  and  this  alone  is  my  crime.  I  have  been  false,  I 
have  been  untrue,  and  I  am  a  traitor  to  the  infamies  that  exist  to- 
day in  capitalistic  society.  If  this  is  a  crime  in  your  opinion  I  plead 
guilty  to  it.  Now,  be  patient  with  me ;  I  have  been  with  you — or, 
rather,  I  have  been  patient  with  this  trial.  Follow  me,  if  you 
please,  and  look  at  the  oppressions  of  this  capitalistic  system  of  in- 
dustry. As  was  depicted  by  my  comrade  Fielden  this  morning, 
every  new  machine  that  comes  into  existence  comes  there  as  a  com- 
petitor with  the  man  of  labor.  Every  machine  under  the  capital- 
istic system  that  is  introduced  into  industrial  affairs  comes  as  a 
competitor,  as  a  drag  and  menace  and  a  prey  to  the  very  existence 
of  those  who  have  to  sell  their  labor  in  order  to  earn  their  bread. 
The  man  is  turned  out  to  starve  and  whole  occupations  and  pursuits 
are  revolutionized  and  completely  destroyed  by  the  introduction  of 
machinery  in  a  day,  in  an  hour,  as  it  were.  I  have  known  it  to  be 


166  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

the  case  in  the  history  of  my  own  life — and  I  am  yet  a  young  man 
—that  whole  pursuits  and  occupations  have  been  wiped  out  by  the 
invention  of  machinery. 

"What  becomes  of  these  people  ?  Where  are  they  ?  They  be- 
come competitors  of  other  laborers,  and  are  made  to  reduce  wages- 
and  increase  the  work  hours.  Many  of  them  are  candidates  for  the 
gibbet,  they  are  candidates  for  your  prison  cells.  Build  more  peni- 
tentiaries ;  erect  more  scaffolds,  for  these  men  are  upon  the  high- 
way of  crime,  of  misery,  of  death. 

Your  honor,  there  never  was  an  effect  without  a  cause.  The 
tree  is  known  by  its  fruit.  Socialists  are  not  those  who  blindly 
close  their  eyes  and  refuse  to  look,  and  who  refuse  to  hear,  but  hav- 
ing eyes  to  see,  they  see,  and  having  ears  to  hear,  they  hear.  Look  at 
this  capitalistic  system ;  look  at  its  operation  upon  the  small  busi- 
ness men,  the  small  dealers,  the  middle  class.  Bradstreet's  tells  us 
in  last  year's  report  that  there  were  11,000  small  business  men  fin- 
ancially destroyed  in  the  past  twelve  months.  What  became  of  those 
people  ?  Where  are  they,  and  why  have  they  been  wiped  out  ?  Has 
there  been  any  less  wealth  ?  No ;  that  which  they  possessed  has- 
simply  transferred  itself  into  the  hands  of  some  other  person.  WTho 
is  that  other?  It  is  he  who  has  greater  capitalistic  facilities.  It  is 
the  monopolist,  the  man  who  can  run  corners,  who  can  create  rings 
and  squeeze  these  men  to  death  and  wipe  them  out  like  dead  flies 
from  the  table  into  his  monopolistic  basket.  The  middle  classes 
destroyed  in  this  manner  join  the  ranks  of  the  proletariat.  They 
become  what  ?  They  seek  out  the  factory  gate,  they  seek  in  the 
various  occupations  of  wage  labor  for  employment.  What  is  the 
result?  Then  there  are  more  men  upon  the  market.  This  in- 
creases the  number  of  those  who  are  applying  for  employment. 
What  then  ?  This  intensifies  the  competition,  which  in  turn  creates 
greater  monopolists,  and  with  it  wages  go  down  until  the  starvation 
point  is  rached,  and  then  what  ? 

Your  honor,  Socialism  comes  to  the  people  and  askc  them  to  look 
into  this  thing,  to  discuss  it,  to  reason,  to  examine  it,  to  investigate 
it,  to  know  the  facts,  because  it  is  by  this,  and  this  alone,  that 
violence  will  be  prevented  and  bloodshed  will  be  avoided,  because, 
as  my  friend  here  has  said,  men  in  their  blind  rage,  in  their  igno- 
rance, not  knowing  what  ails  them,  knowing  they  are  hungry,  that 
they  are  miserable,  and  destitute,  strike  blindly,  and  do  as  they  did 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  167 

with  Maxwell  in  this  city,  and  fight  the  labor-saving  machinery. 
Imagine  such  an  absurd  thing,  and  yet  the  capitalistic  press  has 
taken  great  pains  to  say  the  Socialists  do  these  things ;  that  we 
tight  machinery ;  that  we  fight  property.  Why,  sir,  it  is  an  absurd- 
ity ;  it  is  ridiculous ;  it  is  preposterous.  No  man  ever  heard  an 
utterance  from  the  mouth  of  a  Socialist  to  advise  anything  of  the 
kind.  They  know  to  the  contrary.  We  don't  fight  machinery; 
we  don't  oppose  these  things.  It  is  only  the  manner  and  methods 
of  employing  it  that  we  object  to.  That  is  all.  It  is  the  manipu- 
lation of  these  things  in  the  interests  of  a  few ;  it  is  the  monopo- 
lization of  them  that  we  object  to.  Wo  desire  that  all  the  forces  of 
nature,  all  the  forces  of  society,  of  the  gigantic  strength  which  has 
resulted  from  the  combined  intellect  and  labor  of  the  ages  of  the 
past  shall  be  turned  over  to  man  and  made  his  servant,  his  obedi- 
ent slave  forever.  This  is  the  object  of  Socialism.  It  asks  no  one 
to  give  up  anything.  It  seeks  no  harm  to  anybody.  But  when  we 
witness  this  condition  of  things — when  we  see  little  children  hud- 
dling around  the  factory  gates,  the  poor  little  things  whose  bones 
are  not  yet  hard ;  when  we  see  them  clutched  from  the  hearthstone, 
taken  from  the  family  altar,  and  carried  to  the  bastiles  of  labor  and 
their  little  bones  ground  up  into  gold-dust  to  bedeck  the  form  of 
some  aristocratic  Jezebel — then  it  stirs  me  and  I  speak  out.  We 
plead  for  the  little  ones ;  we  plead  for  the  helpless ;  we  plead  for 
the  oppressed ;  we  seek  redress  for  those  who  are  wronged ;  we  seek 
knowledge  and  intelligence  for  the  ignorant ;  we  seek  liberty  for  the 
slave ;  Socialism  secures  the  welfare  of  every  human  being. 

Your  honor,  if  you  will  permit  it,  I  would  like  to  stop  now  and 
resume  to-morrow  morning. 

The  Court  here  adjourned  until  10  o'clock  the  following  day. 

MR.  PARSONS  RESUMES. 

Your  honor,  I  concluded  last  evening  at  that  portion  of  my 
statement  before  you  which  had  for  its  purpose  a  showing  of  the 
operations  and  effects  of  our  existing  social  system,  the  evils  which 
naturally  flow  from  the  established  social  relations,  which  are 
founded  upon  the  economic  subjection  and  dependence  of  the  man 
of  labor  to  the  monopolizer  of  the  means  of  labor  and  the  resources 
of  life.  I  sought  in  this  connection  to  show  that  the  ills  that  afflict 
society — social  miseries,  mental  degradations,  political  dependence 


1C8  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

—  all  resulted  from  the  economic  subjection  and  dependence  of  the 
man  of  labor  upon  the  monopolizer  of  the  means  of  existence ;  and 
as  long  as  the  cause  remains  the  effect  must  certainly  follow. 

I  pointed  out  what  Bradstreet's  had  to  say  in  regard  to  the 
destruction  of  the  middle  class  last  year.  As  it  affects  the  small 
dealers,  the  middle  class  men  of  our  shop  streets,  the  same  in- 
fluences are  likewise  at  work  among  the  farming  classes.  Accord- 
ing to  statistics  90  per  cent,  of  the  farms  of  America  are  to-day 
under  mortgage.  The  man  who  a  few  years  ago  owned  the  soil  that 
he  worked  is  to-day  a  tenant  at  will,  and  a  mortgage  is  placed  upon 
his  soil,  and  when  he — the  farmer  whose  hand  tickles  the  earth  and 
causes  it  to  blossom  as  the  rose  and  bring  forth  its  rich  fruits  for 
human  sustenance — even  while  this  man  is  asleep  the  interest  upon 
the  mortgage  continues.  It  grows  and  it  increases,  rendering  it 
more  and  more  difficult  for  him  to  get  along  or  make  his  living.  In 
the  meantime  the  railway  corporations  place  upon  the  traffic  all 
that  the  market  will  bear.  The  Board  of  Trade  sharks  run  their 
corners  until — what?  Until  it  occurs,  as  stated  in  the  Chicago 
Tribune  about  three  months  ago,  that  a  freight  train  of  corn  from 
Iowa,  consigned  to  a  commission  merchant  in  Chicago,  had  to  be 
sold  for — well,  for  less  than  the  cost  of  freight,  and  there  was  a 
balance  due  the  commission  man  on  the  freight  of  $3  after  he  had 
sold  the  corn.  The  freightage  upon  that  corn  was  $3  more  than 
the  corn  brought  in  the  market.  So  it  is  with  the  tenant  farmers  of 
America. 

Your  honor,  we  do  not  have  to  go  to  Ireland  to  find  the  evils  of 
landlordism.  We  do  not  have  to  cross  the  Atlantic  ocean  to  find 
Lord  Lietriem's  rack-renters,  landlords  who  evict  their  tenants.  We 
have  them  all  around  us.  There  is  Ireland  right  here  in  Chicago 
and  everywhere  else  in  this  country.  Look  at  Bridgeport,  where  the 
Irish  live!  Look!  Tenants  at  will,  huddled  together  as  State's 
Attorney  Grinnell  calls  them,  like  rats  ;  living  as  they  do  in  Dublin, 
living  precisely  as  they  do  in  Limerick — taxed  to  death,  unable  to 
meet  the  extortions  of  the  landlord. 

We  were  told  by  the  prosecution  that  law  is  on  trial;  that 
Government  is  on  trial.  That  is  what  the  gentlemen  on  the  other 
side  stated  to  the  jury.  The  law  is  on  trial,  and  Government  is  on 
trial.  Well,  up  to  near  the  conclusion  of  this  trial  we,  the  defend- 
ants, supposed  that  we  were  indicted  and  being  tried  for  murder. 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  169 

Now,  if  the  law  is  on  trial  and  if  the  Government  is  on  trial,  who 
has  placed  it  upon  trial  ?  And  I  leave  it  to  the  people  of  America 
whether  the  prosecution  in  this  case  have  made  out  a  case ;  and  I 
charge  it  here  now  frankly  that  in  order  to  bring  about  this  con- 
viction the  prosecution,  the  representatives  of  the  State,  the  sworn 
officers  of  the  law,  those  whose  obligation  it  is  to  the  people  to  obey 
the  law  and  preserve  order — I  charge  upon  them  a  wilfull,  a  mali- 
cious, a  purposed  violation  of  every  law  which  guarantees  every 
right  to  every  American  citizen.  They  have  violated  free  speech. 
In  the  prosecution  of  this  case  they  have  violated  a  free  press. 
They  have  violated  the  right  of  public  assembly.  Yea,  they  have 
even  violated  and  denounced  the  right  of  self-defence.  I  charge  the 
crime  home  to  them.  These  great  blood-bought  rights,  for  which 
our  forefathers  spent  centuries  of  struggle,  it  is  attempted  to  run 
them  like  rats  into  a  hole  by  the  prosecution  in  this  case.  Why, 
gentlemen,  "law  is  upon  trial,"  "Government  is  upon  trial, "indeed. 
Yea,  they  are  themselves  guilty  of  the  precise  thing  of  which  they 
accuse  me.  They  say  that  I  am  an  Anarchist  and  refuse  to  respect 
the  law.  "By  their  works  ye  shall  know  them,"  and  out  of  their 
own  mouths  they  stand  condemned.  They  are  the  real  Anarchists 
in  this  case,  as  that  word  is  commonly  understood,  while  we  stand 
upon  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 

1  have  violated  no  law  of  this  country.  Neither  I  nor  my  col- 
leagues here  have  violated  any  legal  right  of  American  citizens.  We 
stand  upon  the  right  of  free  speech,  of  free  press,  of  public  assem- 
blage, unmolested  and  undisturbed.  We  stand  upon  the  constitu- 
tional right  of  self-defence,  and  we  defy  the  prosecution  to  rob  the 
people  of  America  of  these  dearly  bought  rights.  But  the  prose- 
cution imagines  that  they  have  triumphed  because  they  propose  to 
put  to  death  seven  men.  Seven  men  to  be  exterminated  in  violation 
of  law,  because  they  insist  upon  the  inalienable  rights.  Seven  men 
are  to  be  exterminated  because  they  demand  the  right  of  free 
speech  and  exercise  it.  Seven  men  by  this  court  of  law  are  to  be 
put  to  death  because  they  claim  their  right  of  self-defence.  Do  you 
think,  gentlemen  of  the  prosecution,  that  you  will  have  settled  the 
case  when  you  are  carrying  my  lifeless  bones  to  the  potter's  field  ? 
Do  you  think  that  this  trial  will  be  settled  by  my  strangulation  and 
that  of  my  colleagues  ?  I  tell  you  that  there  is  a  greater  verdict  yet 
to  be  heard  from.  The  American  people  will  have  something  to 


170  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

say  about  this  attempt  to  destroy  their  rights,  which  they  hold 
sacred.  The  American  people  will  have  something  to  say,  when 
they  understand  this  case,  as  to  whether  or  not  the  Constitution  of 
this  country  can  be  trampled  under  foot  at  the  dictation  of  mo- 
nopoly and  corporations  and  their  hired  tools. 

Your  honor  read  yesterday  your  reasons  for  refusing  us  a  new 
trial,  and  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  it,  if  you  please,  on  some 
points  on  which  I  think  your  honor  is  laboring  under  misapprehen- 
sion. Your  honor  says  that  there  can  be  no  question  in  the  mind 
of  any  one  who  has  read  these  articles  (referring  to  the  Alarm  and 
Arbeiter-Zeitung),  or  heard  these  speeches,  which  were  written  and 
spoken  long  before  the  eight-hour  movement  was  talked  of,  that  this 
movement  which  they  advocated  was  but  a  means  in  their  estim- 
ation toward  the  ends  which  they  sought,  and  the  movement  itself 
was  not  primarily  of  any  consideration  at  all.  Now,  your  honor,  I 
submit  that  you  are  sitting  now  in  judgment,  not  alone  upon  my 
acts,  but  also  upon  my  motives.  Now,  that  is  a  dangerous  thing 
for  any  man  to  do ;  any  man  is  so  liable  to  make  a  mistake  in  a 
matter  of  that  kind.  I  claim  that  it  would  not  be  fair  for  you  to 
assume  to  state  what  my  motives  were  in  the  eight-hour  move- 
ment, that  I  was  simply  using  it  for  another  purpose.  How  do  you 
know  that  ?  Can  you  read  my  heart  and  order  my  actions  ?  If  you 
go  by  the  record,  the  record  will  disprove  your  conjecture,  because 
it  is  a  conjecture !  The  State's  Attorney  has  throughout  .this  trial 
done  precisely  what  Mr.  English,  the  reporter  of  the  Tribune,  said 
he  was  instructed  to  do  by  the  proprietor  of  the  Tribune,  when  he 
attended  labor  meetings.  It  was  the  custom  of  the  head  editors  of 
the  large  dailies  to  instruct  those  who  went  to  these  labor  meetings 
to  report  only  the  inflammatory  and  inciting  passages  of  the 
speaker's  remarks  at  the  meetings.  That  is  precisely  the  scheme 
laid  out  by  the  prosecution.  They  have  presented  you  here  copies 
of  the  Alarm  running  back  for  three  years,  and  my  speeches  cover- 
ing three  years  back.  They  have  selected  such  portions  of  those 
articles,  and  such  articles,  mark  you,  as  subserve  their  purpose, 
such  as  they  supposed  would  be  calculated  to  inflame  your  mind 
and  prejudice  you  and  the  jury  against  us.  You  ought  to  be  care- 
ful of  this  thing. 

It  is  not  fair,  and  it  is  not  right  for  you  to  conclude  that,  from 
the  showing  made  by  these  gentlemen,  we  were  not  what  we  pre- 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  171 

tended  to  be  in  this  labor  movement.  Take  the  record.  Why,  I  am 
well  known  throughout  the  United  Stated  for  years  and  years  past 
— my  name  is — and  I  have  come  in  personal  contact  with  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  workingmen  from  Nebraska  in  the  West  to  New  York 
in  the  East,  and  from  Maryland  to  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  I 
have  traversed  the  States  for  the  past  ten  years,  and  I  am  known 
by  hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  seen  and  heard  me.  Possibly 
I  had  better  stop  a  little,  just  a  moment,  here,  and  explain  how  this 
was.  These  labor  organizations  sent  for  me.  Sometimes  it  was 
the  Knights  of  Labor,  sometimes  it  was  the  trades  unions,  some- 
times the  Socialistic  organizations ;  but  always  as  an  organizer  of 
workingmen,  always  as  a  labor  speaker  at  labor  meetings. 

Now,  if  there  is  anything  for  which  I  am  well  known  it  is  my 
advocacy  of  the  eight-hour  system  of  labor.  But  because  I  have 
said  in  this  connection  that  I  did  not  believe  it  would  be  possible  to 
bring  about  a  reform  of  this  present  wage  system,  because  of  the 
fact  that  the  power  of  the  employing  class  is  so  great  that  they  can 
refuse  to  make  any  concessions,  you  say  that  I  had  no  interest  in 
the  eight-hour  movement. 

Is  it  not  a  fact  that  the  present  social  system  places  all  power 
in  the  hands  of  the  capitalistic  class '?  They  can  and  do  refuse  to 
make  any  concessions,  and  where  they  grant  anything  they  retract 
it  when  they  choose  to  do  so.  They  can  do  it.  The  wage  system 
gives  them  the  power.  The  tyranny  and  the  despotism  of  the  wage 
system  of  labor  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  laborer  is  compelled 
under  penalty  of  hunger  and  death  by  starvation  to  obey  and  accept 
terms  laid  down  to  him  by  his  employer.  Hence  I  have  pointed  out 
that  it  might  be  difficult,  for  this  reason,  to  establish  an  eight-hour 
rule. 

What  have  I  said  in  this  connection  ?  I  have  said  to  the  em- 
ployers, to  the  manufacturers,  and  to  the  corporations — the  monop- 
olists of  America :  "Gentlemen,  the  eight-hour  system  of  labor  is 
the  olive  branch  of  peace  held  out  to  you.  Take  it.  Concede  this 
moderate  demand  of  the  working  people.  Give  them  better  oppor- 
tunities. Let  them  possess  the  leisure  which  eight  hours  will  bring. 
Let  it  operate  on  the  wants  and  the  daily  habits  of  the  people."  1 
have  talked  this  way  to  the  rich  of  this  country  in  every  place  I  have 
gone,  and  I  have  told  them — not  in  the  language  of  a  threat,  not 
in  the  language  of  intimidation.  I  have  said :  "If  you  do  not  con- 


172  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

cede  this  demand,  if  on  the  other  hand  you  increase  the  hours  of 
labor  and  employ  more  and  more  machinery,  you  thereby  increase 
the  number  of  enforced  idle ;  you  thereby  swell  the  army  of  the 
compulsorily  idle  and  unemployed ;  you  create  new  elements  of  dis- 
content ;  you  increase  the  army  of  idleness  and  misery."  I  said  to 
them :  "This  is  a  dangerous  condition  of  things  to  have  in  a  coun- 
try. It  is  liable  to  lead  to  violence.  It  will  drive  the  workers  into 
revolution.  The  eight-hour  demand  is  a  measure  which  is  in  the 
interest  of  humanity,  in  the  interest  of  peace,  in  the  interest  of 
prosperity  and  public  order." 

Now,  your  honor,  can  you  take  your  comments  there  and  say  that 
we  had  other  motives  and  ulterior  motives  ?  Your  impression  is  de- 
rived from  the  inflammatory  sections  and  articles  selected  by  the  pros- 
ecution for  your  honor  to  read.  I  think  I  know  what  my  motives  were, 
and  I  am  stating  them  deliberately,  and  fairly  and  honestly,  leaving 
you  to  judge  whether  or  not  I  am  telling  the  truth.  You  say  that 
"the  different  papers  and  speeches  furnish  direct  contradiction  to 
the  arguments  of  the  counsel  for  the  defence  that  we  proposed  to 
resort  to  arms  only  in  case  of  unlawful  attacks  of  the  police."  Why, 
the  very  article  that  you  quote  in  the  Alarm — a  copy  of  which  I  have 
not,  but  which  I  would  like  to  see — calling  the  American  Group  to 
assemble  for  the  purpose  of  considering  military  matters  and  mili- 
tary organization,  states  specifically  that  the  purpose  and  object  is 
to  take  into  consideration  measures  of  defence  against  unlawful  and 
unconstitutional  attacks  of  the  police.  That  identical  article  shows 
it.  You  forgot,  surely,  that  fact  when  you  made  this  observation ; 
and  I  defy  any  one  to  show,  in  a  speech  that  is  susceptible  of  proof, 
by  proof,  that  I  have  ever  said  aught  by  word  of  mouth  or  by  written 
article  except  in  self-defence.  Does  not  the  constitution  of  the  coun- 
try, under  whose  flag  myself  and  my  forefathers  were  born  for  the  last 
260  years,  provide  that  protection,  and  give  me,  their  descendant, 
that  right  ?  Does  not  the  Constitution  say  that  I,  as  an  American, 
have  a  right  to  keep  and  bear  arms  ?  I  stand  upon  that  right.  Let 
me  see  if  this  Court  will  deprive  me  of  it. 

Let  me  call  your  attention  to  another  point  here.  These  articles 
that  appear  in  the  Alarm,  for  some  of  them  I  am  not  responsible 
any  more  than  is  the  editor  of  any  other  paper.  I  did  not  write 
everything  in  the  Alarm,  and  it  might  be  possible  that  there  were 
some  things  in  that  paper  which  I  am  not  ready  to  endorse.  I  am 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  173 

frank  to  admit  that  such  is  the  case.  I  suppose  you  could  scarcely 
find  an  editor  of  a  paper  in  the  world  but  could  conscientiously 
say  the  same  thing.  Now,  am  I  to  be  dragged  here  and  executed 
for  the  utterances  and  the  writings  of  other  men,  even  though  they 
were  published  in  the  columns  of  a  paper  of  which  I  was  the  editor  ? 

Your  honor,  you  must  remember  that  the  Alarm  was  a  labor 
paper,  published  by  the  International  Working  People's  Association. 
Belonging  to  that  body,  I  was  elected  its  editor  by  the  organization, 
and,  as  labor  editors  generally  are,  I  was  handsomely  paid.  I  had 
saw-dust  pudding  as  a  general  thing  for  dinner.  My  salary  was  $8 
a  week,  and  I  have  received  that  salary  as  editor  of  the  Alarm  for 
over  two  years  and  a  half — $8  a  week !  I  was  paid  by  the  associa- 
tion. It  stands  upon  the  books.  Go  down  to  the  office  and  consult 
the  business  manager.  Look  over  the  record  in  the  book  and  it  will 
show  you  that  Albert  E.  Parsons  received  $8  a  week  as  editor  of  the 
Alarm  for  over  two  years  and  a  half.  This  paper  belonged  to  the 
organization.  It  was  theirs.  They  sent  in  their  articles — Tom,  Dick, 
and  Harry ;  everybody  wanted  to  have  something  to  say,  and  I  had 
no  right  to  shut  off  anybody's  complaint.  The  Alarm  was  a  labor 
paper,  and  it  was  specifically  published  for  the  purpose  of  allowing 
every  human  being  who  wore  the  chains  of  monopoly  an  opportunity 
to  clank  those  chains  in  the  columns  of  the  Alarm.  It  was  a  free 
press  organ.  It  was  a  free  speech  newspaper.  But  your  honor  says : 
"Oh,  well,  Parsons,  your  own  language,  your  own  words,  your  own 
statements  at  this  meeting — what  you  said."  Well,  possibly,  I  have 
said  some  foolish  things.  Who  has  not?  As  a  public  speaker, 
probably  I  have  uttered  some  wild  and  possibly  incoherent  asser- 
tions. Who,  as  a  public  speaker,  has  not  done  so  ? 

Now,  consider  for  a  moment.  Suppose,  as  is  now  the  case  with 
me  here,  I  see  little  children  suffering,  men  and  women  starving.  I 
see  others  rolling  in  luxury  and  wealth  and  opulence,  out  of  the 
unpaid-for  labor  of  the  laborers.  I  am  conscious  of  this  fact.  I  see 
the  streets  of  Chicago,  as  was  the  case  last  winter,  filled  with  30,000 
men  in  compulsory  idleness ;  destitution,  misery,  and  want  upon 
every  hand.  I  see  this  thing.  Then,  on  the  other  hand,  I  see  the 
First  Eegiment  out  in  a  street-riot  drill,  and  reading  the  papers  the 
next  morning  describing  the  affair,  I  am  told  by  the  editor  of  this 
capitalistic  newspaper  that  the  First  Kegiment  is  out  practicing  a 
street-riot  drill  for  the  purpose  of  mowing  down  these  wretches 


174  A.  R.  PARSONS 

when  they  come  out  of  their  holes  that  the  prosecution  talks  about 
here  in  this  case ;  that  the  working  people  are  to  be  slaughtered  in 
cold  blood,  and  that  men  are  drilling  upon  the  streets  of  the  cities 
of  America  to  butcher  their  fellow-men  when  they  demand  the  right 
to  work  and  partake  of  the  fruits  of  their  labor!  Seeing  these 
things,  overwhelmed  as  it  were  with  indignation  and  pity,  my  heart 
speaks.  May  I  not  say  some  things  then  that  I  would  not  in  cooler 
moments  ?  Are  not  such  outrageous  things  calculated  to  arouse  the 
bitterest  denunciations  ? 
*  *  *  ********** 

In  this  connection  I  want  to  call  your  attention  to  the  way 
armed  men — militiamen  and  Pinkerton's  private  army — are  used 
against  workingmen,  strikers ;  the  way  they  are  used  to  shoot,  to 
arrest,  to  put  up  jobs  on  them,  and  carry  them  out.  In  the  Alarm 
of  October  17,  1885,  there  is  printed  the  following : 

PINKEKTON'S  AKMY. 


THEY    ISSUE    A    SECEET   CIRCULAR    OFFERING   THEIR   SERVICES    TO  CAPITALISTS 
FOR   THE   SUPPRESSION   OF   STRIKERS. 


The  secretary  of  the  Minneapolis,  Minn.,  Trades  and  Labor  Assembly 
sends  us  the  following  note: 

•  "MINNEAPOLIS,  Minn.,  October  6,  1885. 

"Editor  of  the  'Alarm.'— Dear  Sir:  Please  pay  your  respects  to  the  Pinker- 
"'ton  pups  for  their  extreme  kindness  to  labor.  Try  to  have  the  Government  of 
"your  city  do  away  with  its  metropolitan  police  and  employ  the  Pinkerton  pro- 
jectors. [Of  course  this  is  sarcastic.]  The  inclosed  circular  fell  into  the  hands 
"of  the  Minneapolis  Trades  Assembly  .which  thought  it  not  out  of  place  to  pass 
"it  around.  Please  insert  it  in  your  paper.  Yours  fraternally, 

"T.  W.  BROSNAN." 

This  letter  is  under  the  seal  of  the  Trades  and  Labor  Assembly  of  the  city 
of  Minneapolis,  Minn.  Then,  after  referring  to  the  services  rendered  to  the 
capitalists,  corporations,  and  monopolists  during  the  strikes  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  during  the  past  year,  the  circular  closes  with  the  following  paragraphs, 
which  we  give  in  full  as  illustrative  of  the  designs  of  these  secret  enemies  upon 
organized  labor.  Let  every  workingman  ponder  over  the  avowed  purposes  of 
these  armies  of  thugs.  It  says  : 

"The  Pinkerton  Protective  Patrol  is  connected  with  Pinkerton's  National 
"Detective  Agency,  and  is  under  the  same  management.  Corporations  or  in- 
dividuals desirous  of  ascertaining  the  feelings  of  their  employes,  whether  they 
"are  likely  to  engage  in  strikes  or  join  any  secret  labor  organization,  such 
"as  the  Knights  of  Labor,  with  a  view  of  compelling  terms  from  corporations 
"or  employers,  can  obtain  upon  application  to  the  superintendent  of  either  of 
"the  offices  a  detective  suitable  to  associate  with  their  employes  and  obtain 
"this  information." 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  175 

This  circular  continues : 

"At  this  time,  when  there  is  so  much  dissatisfaction  among  the  labor 
"classes,  and  secret  labor  societies  are  organizing  throughout  the  United 
•"States,  we  suggest  whether  it  would  not  be  well  for  railroad  companies  and 
"other  corporations,  as  well  as  individuals  who  are  extensive  employers,  to 
"keep  a  close  watch  for  designing  men  among  their  own  employes,  who,  in  the 
"interest  of  secret  labor  societies,  are  influencing  their  employes  to  join  these 
"organizations  and  eventually  cause  a  strike.  It  is  frequently  the  case  that, 
"by  taking  a  matter  of  this  kind  in  time,  and  discovering  the  ring-leaders,  and 
"dealing  promptly  with  them  [discovering  the  ring- leaders,  mark  you,  and 
"dealing  piompily  with  them]  serious  trouble  may  be  avoided  in  the  future. 
"Yours  respectfully, 

"WILLIAM  A.  PINKERTON, 
"General  Superintendent  Western  Agency,  Chicago. 

"EGBERT  A.  PINKERTON, 
"General  Superintendent  Eastern  Division,  New  York. ' 

Now  here  is  a  concern,  an  institution  which  organizes  a  private 
army.  This  private  army  is  at  the  command  and  under  the  control  of 
those  who  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor,  who  keep  wages  down  to  the  star- 
vation point.  This  private  army  can  be  shipped  to  the  place  where  it 
are  wanted.  Now  it  goes  to  the  Hocking  Valley  to  subjugate  the 
starving  miners ;  then  it  is  carried  across  the  plains  to  Nebraska  to 
shoot  the  striking  miners  in  that  region ;  then  it  is  carried  to  the 
East  to  stop  the  strike  of  the  factory  operatives  and  put  them  down. 
The  army  moves  about  to  and  fro  all  over  the  country,  sneaks  into 
the  labor  organizations,  worms  itself  into  these  labor  societies, 
finds  out,  as  it  says,  who  the  ring-leaders  are  and  deals  promptly 
with  them.  "Promptly,"  your  honor,  "with  them."  Now,  what 
does  that  mean  ?  It  means  this :  that  some  workingman  who  has 
got  the  spirit  of  a  man  in  his  organization,  who  gets  up  and  speaks 
out  his  sentiments,  protests,  you  know,  objects,  won't  have  it,  don't 
like  these  indignities,  and  says  so ;  he  is  set  down  as  a  ring-leader, 
and  these  spies  go  to  work  and  put  up  a  job  on  him.  If  they  can  not 
aggravate  him  and  make  him,  as  the  New  York  Tribune  says,  violate 
the  law  so  they  can  get  hold  of  him,  they  go  to  work  and  put  up  a 
scheme  on  him,  and  concoct  a  conspiracy  that  will  bring  him  into 
Court.  When  he  is  brought  into  Court  he  is  a  wage-slave ;  he  has 
got  no  money — who  is  he  ?  Why,  he  stands  here  at  the  bar  like  a 
culprit.  He  has  neither  position,  wealth,  honor,  nor  friends  to 
defend  him.  What  is  the  result  ?  Why,  sixty  days  at  the  Bridewell 
or  a  year  in  the  County  jail,  in  State's  prison,  or  hanged,  as  the 
monopolists  may  determine  him  to  be  more  or  less  dangerous  to 
their  interests.  The  matter  is  dismissed  with  a  wave  of  the  hand. 
The  bailiff  carries  the  "ring-leader"  out.  The  strike  is  suppressed. 


176  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

Monopoly  triumphs  and  the  Pinkertons  have  performed  the  work 
for  which  they  receive  their  pay. 

Now,  it  was  these  things  that  caused  the  American  Group  to 
take  an  exceeding  interest  in  this  manner  of  treatment  on  the  part 
of  the  corporations  and  monopolies  of  the  country,  and  we  became 
indignant  about  it.  We  expostulated,  we  denounced  it.  Could  we 
do  otherwise  ?  We  are  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  miseries  brought 
about  by  this  condition  of  things.  Could  we  do  otherwise  than  ex- 
postulate and  object  to  it  and  resent  it?  Now,  to  illustrate  what 
we  did,  I  read  to  you  from  the  Alarm  of  December  12,  1885,  the 
proceedings  of  the  American  Group,  of  which  I  was  a  member,  as 
a  sample.  I  being  present  at  that  meeting,  and  that  meeting  being 
reported  in  this  paper,  I  hold  that  this  report  of  the  meeting,  being 
put  into  the  Alarm  at  that  time,  is  worthy  of  your  credence  and 
respect,  as  showing  what  our  attitude  was  upon  the  question  of 
force  and  of  arms  and  of  dynamite.  The  article  is  headed  :  "Street 
Eiot  Drill.  Mass  Meeting  of  Working  People  held  at  106  East  Ean- 
dolph  Street."  This  was  the  regular  hall  and  place  of  meeting.  The 
article  reads : 

A  large  mass-meeting  of  working  men  and  women  was  held  by  the  Amer- 
ican Group  of  the  International  last  Wednesday  evening  at  their  hall,  106  East 
Kandolph  street.  The  subject  under  discussion  was  the  street- riot  drill  of  the 
First  Regiment  on  Thanksgiving  day.  William  Holmes  presided.  The  principal 
speaker  was  Mrs.  Lucy  E.  Parsons.  She  began  by  saying  that  the  founders 
of  this  Republic,  whose  motto  was  that  every  human  being  was  by  nature 
entitled  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  would  turn  in  their  graves 
if  they  could  read  and  know  that  a  great  street-riot  drill  was  now  being  prac- 
ticed in  times  of  peace.  "Let  us,"  said  she,  "examine  into  this  matter  and 
ascertain,  if  we  can,  what  this  street-riot  drill  of  the  military  is  for.  Certainly 
not  for  the  purpose  of  fighting  enemies  from  without ;  not  for  a  foreign  foe,  for 
if  this  was  the  case  we  would  be  massing  our  armies  on  the  sea-coast.  Then 
it  must  be  for  our  enemies  within.  Now,  then,  do  a  contented,  prosperous,  and 
happy  people  leave  their  avocations  and  go  out  upon  the  streets  to  riot  ?  Do 
young  men  and  maidens  who  are  marrying  and  given  in  marriage  forsake  the 
peaceful  paths  of  life  to  become  a  riotous  mob  ?  Then  who  is  the  street-riot 
drill  for  ?  For  whom  is  it  intended  ?  Who  is  to  be  shot  ?  When  the  tramp  of 
the  military  is  heard,  and  grape  and  canister  are  sweeping  four  streets  at 
a  time,  as  is  contemplated  by  this  new-fangled  drill  which  was  so  graph- 
ically described  in  the  capitalistic  press  which  gave  an  account  of  it,  it  is  cer- 
tainly not  for  the  purpose  of  shooting  down  the  bourgeoise,  the  wealthy, 
because  this  same  press  makes  a  stirring  appeal  to  them  to  contribute  liberally 
to  a  military  fund  to  put  them  on  a  good  footing  nad  make  the  militia  twice  as 
strong  as  it  is  at  present,  because  their  services  would  soon  be  needed  to 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  177 

shoot  down  the  mob."     The  speaker  then  read  an  extract  from  a  capitalistic 
account  of  the  street-riot  drill  on  Thanksgiving  day. 

Your  honor,  this  meeting  was  held  the  week  following  Thanks- 
giving day,  and  the  drill  took  place  on  Thanksgiving  day.  This 
article,  which  is  a  description  of  the  drill  copied  from  a  capitalistic 
paper,  reads  as  follows : 

As  a  conclusion  the  divisions  were  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  and  there  was 
more  firing  by  companies,  by  file,  and  by  battallion.  The  drill  was  creditable 
to  the  regiment,  and  the  First  will  do  excellent  service  in  the  streets  in  case 
of  necessity.  Opportunities,  however,  are  needed  for  rifle  practice,  and  Col. 
Knox  is  anxious  to  have  a  range  established  as  soon  as  possible.  Instead  of 
400  members,  the  regiment  should  have  800  members  on  its  rolls.  Business 
men  should  take  more  interest  in  the  organization  and  help  put  it  in  the  best 
possible  condition  to  cope  with  a  mob,  for  there  may  be  need  for  its  services  at 
no  distant  day. 

That  article  appeared  either  in  the  Times  or  Tribune  of  the  next 
day.  1  don't  know  which.  The  speaker  says : 

What  must  be  the  thought  of  the  oppressed  in  foreign  lands  when  they  hear 
the  tramp  of  the  militia  beneath  the  folds  of  the  stars  and  stripes?  They  who 
first  flung  this  flag  to  the  breeze  proclaimed  that  beneath  its  folds  the  oppressed 
of  all  lands  would  find  a  refuge  and  a  haven  and  protection  against  the  despot- 
ism of  all  lands.  Is  this  the  case  to-day,  when  the  counter-tramp  of  2,000,000 
homeless  wanderers  is  heard  throughout  the  land  of  America — men  strong  and 
able  and  anxious  and  willing  to  work,  that  they  may  purchase  for  themselves 
and  their  families  food ;  when  the  cry  of  discontent  is  heard  from  the  working 
classes  everywhere,  and  they  refuse  longer  to  starve  and  peaceably  accept  a 
rifle  diet  and  die  in  misery  according  to  law,  and  order  is  enforced  by  the  mili- 
tary drill — is  this  military  drill  for  the  purpose  of  sweeping  them  down  as  a 
mob  with  grape  and  canister  upon  the  street  ? 

This  is  the  language  of  the  speaker  at  the  meeting : 
We  working  people  hear  these  ominous  rumblings,  which  create  inquiry 
as  to  their  origin.  A  few  years  ago  we  heard  nothing  of  this  kind  ;  but  great 
changes  have  taken  place  during  the  past  generation.  Charles  Dickens,  who 
visited  America  forty  years  ago,  said  that  what  surprised  him  most  was  the  gen- 
eral prosperity  and  equality  of  all  people,  and  that  a  beggar  upon  the  streets  of 
Boston  would  create  as  much  consternation  as  an  angel  with  a  flaming  sword. 
What  of  Boston  to-day  ?  Last  winter,  said  a  correspondent  of  the  Chicago 
Tribune,  writing  from  that  city,  30,000  persons  were  destitute,  and  there  were 
whole  streets  of  tenant-houses  where  the  possession  of  a  cooking-stove  was 
regarded  as;a  badge  of  aristocracy,  the  holes  of  which  were  rented  to  other  less 
wealthy  neighbors  for  a  few  pennies  per  hour.  So,  too,with  New  York,  Chicago, 
and  every  other  industrial  center  in  this  broad  land.  Why  is  this  ?  Have  we 
had  a  famine  ?  Has  nature  refused  to  yield  her  harvest  ?  These  are  grave 
and  serious  questions  for  us,  the  producers  and  sufferers,  to  consider,  at  least. 


178  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

Take  a  glance  at  the  wealth  of  this  country.  In  the  past  twenty  years  it  has 
increased  over  $20,000,000,000.  Into  whose  hands  has  the  wealth  found  its 
way?  Certainly  not  into  the  hands  of  the  producers,  for  if  it  had  there  would  be 
no  need  for  street-riot  drills.  This  country  has  a  population  of  55,000,000,  and 
a  statistical  compilation  shows  that  there  are  in  the  cities  of  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Boston  twenty  men  who  own  as  their  private  property  over  $750,- 
000,000,  or  about  one -twenty -sixth  of  the  entire  increase  which  was  produced 
by  the  labor  of  the  working  class,  these  twenty  individuals  being  as  1  in 
3,000,000.  In  twenty  years  these  profit- mongers  have  fleeced  the  people  of 
the  enormous  sum  of  $750,000,000 — and  only  three  cities  and  twenty  robbers 
heard  from  !  A  Government  that  protects  this  plundering  of  the  people— a 
Government  which  permits  the  people  to  be  degraded  and  brought  to  misery 
in  this  manner — is  a  fraud  upon  the  face  of  it,  no  matter  under  what  name  it  is 
called,  or  what  flag  floats  over  it ;  whether  it  be  a  Kepublic,  a  Monarchy,  or  an 
Empire,"  said  the  speaker.  "The  American  flag  protects  as  much  economic 
despotism  as  any  other  flag  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day  to  the  ratio  of 
population.  This  being  the  case,  of  what  does  the  boasted  freedom  of  the 
American  workingman  consist  ?  Our  fathers  used  to  sing  : 

Come  along,  come  along ;  make  no  delay ; 
Come  from  every  nation,  come  from  every  way ; 
Come  along,  come  along ;  don't  be  alarmed — 
Uncle  Sam  is  rich  enough  to  give  us  all  a  farm. 

The  "stars  and  stripes"  in  those  days  floated  upon  every  water  as  the  em- 
blem of  the  free,  but  to-day  it  obeys  only  the  command  and  has  become  the 
ensign  of  monopoly  and  corporations,  of  those  who  grind  the  face  of  the  poor 
and  rob  and  enslave  the  laborer.  Could  Kussia  do  more  than  drill  in  its  streets 
to  kill  the  people  ?  But  alas  !  Americans  creep  and  crawl  at  the  foot  of  wealth 
and  adore  the  golden  calf.  Can  a  man  amass  millions  without  despoiling  the 
labor  of  others  ?  "We  all  know  he  can  not.  American  workingmen  seem  to  be 
degenerating.  They  do  not  seen:  to  understand  what  liberty  and  freedom 
really  consist  of.  They  shout  themselves  hoarse  on  election  day — for  what  ? 
For  the  miserable  privilege  of  choosing  their  master ;  which  man  shall  be  their 
boss  and  rule  over  them  ;  for  the  privilege  of  choosing  just  who  are  the  bosses 
and  who  shall  govern  them.  Great  privilege  !  These  Americans — sovereigns 
— millions  of  them  do  not  know  where  they  could  get  a  bed  or  a  supper.  Your 
ballot — what  is  it  good  for?  Can  a  man  vote  himself  bread,  or  clothes,  or  shelter, 
or  work?  In  what  does  the  American  wage-slave's  freedom  consist?  The 
poor  are  the  slaves  of  the  rich  everywhere.  The  ballot  is  neither  a  protection 
against  hunger  nor  against  the  bullets  of  the  military.  Bread  is  freedom,  free- 
dom bread.  The  ballot  is  no  protection  against  the  bullets  of  those  who  are 
practicing  the  street-riot  drills  in  Chicago.  The  ballot  is  worthless  to  the  in- 
dustrial slaves  under  these  conditions.  The  palaces  of  the  rich  overshadow 
the  homes  or  huts  of  the  poor,  and  we  say,  with  Victor  Hugo,  that  the  paradise 
of  the  rich  is  made  out  of  the  hells  of  the  poor.  The  whole  force  of  the  organ- 
ized power  of  the  Government  is  thrown  against  the  workers,  whom  the  so- 
called  better  class  denominate  a  mob.  Now,  when  the  workers  of  America 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  179 

refuse  to  starve  according  to  "law  and  order,"  and  when  they  begin  to  think  and 
act,  why,  the  street-riot  drill  begins.  The  enslavers  of  labor  see  the  coming 
storm.  They  are  determined,  cost  what  it  may,  to  drill  these  people  and  make 
them  their  slaves  by  holding  in  their  possession  the  means  of  life  as  their  prop- 
erty, and  thus  enslave  the  producers.  Workingmen — we  mean  the  women,  too 
— arise  !  Prepare  to  make  and  determine  successfully  to  establish  the  right 
to  live  and  partake  of  the  bounties  to  which  all  are  equally  entitled.  Agitate, 
organize,  prepare  to  defend  your  life,  your  liberty,  your  happiness  against  the 
murderers  who  are  practicing  the  street- riot  drill  on  Thanksgiving  day. 

'Tia  the  shame  of  the  land  that  the  earnings  of  toil, 

Should  gorge  the  god  Mammon,  the  tyrant,  the  spoiler. 
Every  foot  has  a  logical  right  to  the  soil, 
And  the  product  of  toil  is  the  meed  of  the  toiler. 
The  hands  that  disdain 
Honest  industry's  stain 

Have  no  share  in  its  honor,  no  right  to  its  gain, 
And  the  falsehood  of  wealth  or  worth  shall  not  be 
In  "the  home  of  the  brave  and  the  land  of  the  free." 

Short  addresses  were  made  by  Comrades  Fielden,  Dr.  Taylor, William  Sny- 
<Jer, William  Holmes,  and  others.    This  concluded  the  meeting  after  criticisms. 

Now,  I  challenge  your  honor  to  find  a  sentence  or  an  utter- 
ance in  that  meeting — and  that  is  one  of  the  fullest  reported  of  the 
many  meetings  held  by  the  American  Group  for  public  discussion  of 
such  matters  as  the  Thanksgiving  drill  of  the  First  Eegiment — I 
challenge  you  to  find  a  single  word  or  utterance  there  that  is  un- 
lawful, that  is  contrary  to  the  constitution,  or  that  is  in  violation  of 
free  speech,  or  that  is  in  violation  of  free  press,  or  that  is  in  violation 
of  public  assembly  or  of  the  right  of  self-defence.  And  that  is  our 
position,  and  has  been  all  the  while.  Imagine  for  a  moment  the 
First  Eegiment  practicing  the  street-riot  drill  as  it  was  described — 
learning  how  to  sweep  four  streets  from  the  four  corners  at  once. 
Who?  The  Tribune  and  Times  say  "the  mob."  Who  are  the  mob? 
Why,  dissatisfied  people,  dissatisfied  working  men  and  women; 
people  who  are  working  for  starvation  wages,  people  who  are  on 
a  strike  for  better  pay — these  are  the  mob.  They  are  always  the 
mob.  That  is  what  the  riot  drill  is  for. 

Suppose  a  case  that  occurs.  The  First  Eegiment  is  out  with 
1,000  men,  armed  with  the  latest  improved  Winchester  rifles.  Here 
are  the  mobs ;  here  are  the  Knights  of  Labor  and  the  trades  unions, 
and  all  the  organizations,  without  arms.  They  have  no  treasury, 
and  a  Winchester  rifle  costs  $18.  They  cannot  purchase  those 
things.  We  can  not  organize  an  army.  It  takes  capital  to  organize 


180  A.  B.  PARSONS' 

an  army.  It  takes  as  much  money  to  organize  an  army  as  to  or- 
ganize industry,  or  as  to  build  railroads ;  therefore,  it  is  impossible 
for  the  working  classes  to  organize  and  buy  Winchester  rifles.  What 
can  they  do  ?  What  must  they  do  ? 

Your  honor,  the  dynamite  bomb,  I  am  told,  costs  6  cents.  It  can 
be  made  by  anybody.  The  Winchester  rifle  costs  $18.  That  is  the 
difference.  Am  I  to  be  blamed  for  that  ?  Am  I  to  be  hanged  for 
saying  this  ?  Am  I  to  be  destroyed  for  this  ?  What  have  I  done  ? 
Go  dig  up  the  ashes  of  the  man  who  invented  this  thing.  Find  his 
ashes  and  scatter  them  to  the  winds  because  he  gave  this  power  to 
the  world.  It  was  not  me.  Gen.  Sheridan — he  is  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  United  States  army,  and  in  his  report  to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Congress  two  years  ago  he  had  occassion  to  speak  of  the 
possible  labor  troubles  that  may  occur  in  the  country,  and  what  did 
he  say  ?  In  this  report  he  said  that  dynamite  was  a  lately  discov- 
ered article  of  tremendous  power,  and  such  was  its  nature  that 
people  could  carry  it  around  in  the  pockets  of  their  clothing  with 
perfect  safety  to  themselves,  and  by  means  of  it  they  could  destroy 
whole  cities  and  whole  armies.  This  was  Gen.  Sheridan.  That  is 
what  he  said.  We  quoted  that  language  and  referred  to  it.  I  want 
to  say  another  word  about  dynamite  before  I  pass  on  to  something 
else. 

I  am  called  a  dynamiter.  Why?  Did  I  ever  use  dynamite?  No. 
Did  I  ever  have  any  ?  No.  Why,  then,  am  I  called  a  dynamiter  ? 
Listen,  and  I  will  tell  you.  Gunpowder  in  the  fifteenth  century 
marked  an  era  in  the  world's  history.  It  was  the  downfall  of  the 
mail  armor  of  the  knight,  the  freebooter,  and  the  robber  of  that 
period.  It  enabled  the  victims  of  the  highway  robbers  to  stand  off 
at  a  distance  in  a  safe  place  and  defend  themselves  by  the  use  of 
gunpowder,  and  make  a  ball  enter  and  pierce  into  the  flesh  of  their 
robbers  and  destroyers.  Gunpowder  came  as  a  democratic  instru- 
ment. It  came  as  a  republican  institution,  and  the  effect  was  that 
it  immediately  began  to  equalize  and  bring  about  an  equilibrium  of 
power.  There  was  less  power  in  the  hands  of  the  nobility  after 
that ;  less  power  in  the  hands  of  the  king ;  less  power  in  the  hands 
of  those  who  would  plunder  and  degrade  and  destroy  the  people  after 
that. 

So  to-day  dynamite  comes  as  the  emancipator  of  man  from  the 
domination  and  enslavement  of  his  fellow-man.  [The  Judge  showed 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  181 

symptoms  of  impatience.]  Bear  with  me  now.  Dynamite  is  the 
diffusion  of  power.  It  is  democratic ;  it  makes  everybody  equal. 
Gen.  Sheridan  says :  "Arms  are  worthless."  They  are  worthless  in 
the  presence  of  this  instrument.  Nothing  can  meet  it.  The  Pinker- 
tons,  the  police,  the  militia  are  absolutely  worthless  in  the  presence 
of  dynamite.  They  can  do  nothing  with  the  people  at  all.  It  is 
tho  equilibrium.  It  is  the  annihilator.  It  is  the  disseminator  of 
power.  It  is  the  downfall  of  oppression.  It  is  the  abolition  of 
authority ;  it  is  the  dawn  of  peace ;  it  is  the  end  of  war,  because 
war  cannot  exist  unless  there  is  somebody  to  make  war  upon,  and 
dynamite  makes  that  unsafe,  is  undesirable,  and  absolutely  impos- 
sible. It  is  a  peace-maker ;  itis  man's  best  and  last  friend ;  it  emanci- 
pates the  world  from  the  domineering  of  the  few  over  the  many, 
because  all  Government,  in  the  last  resort,  is  violence ;  all  law,  in 
the  last  resort,  is  force.  Force  is  the  law  of  the  universe ;  force  is 
the  law  of  nature,  and  this  newly  discovered  force  makes  all  men 
equal,  and  therefore  free.  It  is  idle  to  talk  of  rights  when  one  does 
not  possess  the  power  to  enforce  them.  Science  has  now  given  every 
human  being  that  power.  It  is  proposed  by  the  prosecution  here  to 
take  me  by  force  and  strangle  me  on  the  gallows  for  these  things  I 
have  said,  for  these  expressions.  Now,  force  is  the  last  resort  of 
tyrants ;  it  is  the  last  resort  of  despots  and  of  oppressors,  and  he 
who  would  strangle  another  because  that  other  does  not  believe  as 
he  would  have  him,  he  who  will  destroy  another  because  that  other 
will  not  do  as  he  says,  that  man  is  a  despot  and  a  tyrant. 

Now,  I  speak  plainly.  Does  it  follow,  because  I  hold  these 
views,  that  I  committed  or  had  anything  to  do  with  the  commission 
of  that  act  at  the  Haymarket  ?  Does  that  follow  ?  Why,  you  might 
just  as  consistently  charge  Gen.  Phil  Sheridan  with  the  act,  and  for 
the  same  reason,  for  while  he  did  not  go  into  the  matter  perhaps  as 
extensively  in  his  encomium  upon  dynamite  as  I  have  done,  yet  he 
furnished  me  the  text  from  which  I  have  drawn  my  knowledge  of 
this  thing.  But,  you  say,  my  speeches  were  sometimes  extra- 
vagant, unlawful.  During  the  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  ex- 
tension of  chattel  slavery  into  the  new  Territories,  into  Kansas  and 
the  West,  while  Charles  Sumner  was  yet  a  member  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  that  gallant  man  stood  as  the  champion  of  free- 
dom upon  that  floor,  he  was  expostulated  with  on  one  occassion 
and  reprimanded  by  a  friend,  who  said  to  him :  "Sumner,  you  are 


182  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

not  expedient ;  you  must  have  more  policy  about  what  you  say ;. 
you  should  not  express  yourself  in  this  manner ;  you  should  not  be 
so  denunciatory  and  fanatical  against  this  slavery,  this  enslavement. 
I  know  it  is  wrong ;  I  know  it  should  be  denounced,  but  keep  inside 
of  the  law ;  keep  inside  of  the  constitution." 

Your  honor,  I  quote  from  the  speech  of  Charles  Sumner,  that 
great  American,  in  answer  and  in  reply  to  that  remark.  Said  he : 

Anything  for  human  rights  is  constitutional.  No  learning  in  books,  no 
skill  acquired  in  Courts,  no  sharpness  of  forensic  dealings,  no  cunning  in 
splitting  hairs  can  impair  the  vigor  thereof.  This  is  the  supreme  law  of  the 
land,  anything  in  the  constitution  or  laws  of  any  State  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. 

I  never  said  anything  that  could  equal  that  in  lawlessness.  I 
never  was  as  lawless  in  my  expression  as  that.  Go,  gentlemen  of 
the  prosecution,  dig  up  the  ashes  of  Sumner  and  scatter  them  in 
disgrace  to  the  wind,  tear  down  the  monument  that  the  American 
people  have  erected  to  his  honor,  and  erect  thereon  some  emblem 
of  your  contempt. 
*  #  *  ********** 

What  are  the  facts  about  the  Haymarket  meeting  ?  The  meet- 
ing at  107  Fifth  avenue  had  already  been  called,  and  at  half-past 
7  o'clock  I  left  home  with  my  wife,  Mrs.  Holmes,  and  the  children. 
We  got  to  Halsted  street.  Two  reporters  seeing  me  thought  there 
was  a  chance  to  get  an  item  and  came  over  to  me — the  Times  man 
and  the  Tribune  man,  I  forget  their  names. 

"Hello,  Parsons,  what  is  the  news?"  says  one. 

"I  don't  know  anything." 

"Going  to  be  a  meeting  here  to-night?" 

"Yes,  I  guess  so." 

"Going  to  speak?" 

"No." 

"Where  are  you  going  ?" 

"I  have  got  another  meeting  on  hand  to-night." 

And  some  playful  remark  was  made.  I  slapped  one  of  them  on 
the  back.  I  was  quite  well  acquainted  with  the  men  and  we  made 
one  or  two  brief  remarks,  and — as  they  testified  on  the  stand —  I 
got  on  the  car  right  then  and  there  with  my  wife  and  two  children, 
in  company  with  Mrs.  Holmes.  I  took  the  car,  and  they  saw  that. 
I  went  down  to  Fifth  avenue.  When  I  got  down  there  I  found  four 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  183 

or  five  other  ladies  there,  and  about — well,  probably,  twelve  or  fif- 
teen— men.  It  was  about  8 :  80  o'clock  when  we  opened — I  guess  it 
was.  "We  staid  there  about  half  an  hour.  We  settled  the  busi- 
ness. About  the  time  we  were  through  with  it  a  committee  came 
from  the  Haymarket,  saying:  "Nobody  is  over  there  but  Spies. 
There  is  an  awful  big  crowd,  8,000  or  4,000  people.  For  God's 
sake  send  somebody  over.  Come  over,  Parsons ;  come  over,  Fiel- 
den."  Well,  we  went  there.  The  meeting  was  adjourned  and  we 
all  went  over  there  together — all  of  us ;  my  wife,  Mrs.  Holmes,  two 
other  ladies,  and  my  two  little  children,  went  over  to  the  Hay- 
market  meeting.  And  these  ladies  sat  ten  feet  behind  the  wagon 
from  which  I  spoke. 

Your  honor,   is  it  possible  that   a  man  would  go   into  the 
dynamite-bomb  business  under  those  conditions  and  those  circum- 
stances?   It  is  incredible.    It  is  beyond  human  nature  to  believe 
such  a  thing  possible,  absolutely. 
*        *        *        ********** 

The  verdict  was  against  Socialism,  as  said  by  the  Chicago 
Times  the  day  after  the  verdict. 

"In  the  opinion  of  many  thoughtful  men,  the  labor  question  has 
reached  a  point  where  blood-letting  has  become  necessary,"  says  the 
Chicago  Iron-Monger. 

"The  execution  of  the  death  penalty  upon  the  Socialist  male- 
factors in  Chicago  will  be  in  its  effect  the  execution  of  the  death 
penalty  upon  the  Socialistic  propaganda  in  this  country.  The  ver- 
dict of  death  pronounced  by  a  Chicago  jury  and  Court  against  these 
Socialist  malefactors  in  Chicago  is  the  verdict  of  the  American 
people  against  the  crime  called  Socialism,"  says  the  Chicago  Times. 
By  the  American  people  the  Times  means  the  monopolists. 

In  more  familiar  words,  as  used  heretefore  by  the  Times,  "other 
workingmen  will  take  warning  from  their  fate,  and  learn  a  valuable 
lesson."  The  Times  in  1878  advised  that  "handgrenades  (bombs) 
should  be  thrown  among  the  striking  sailors,"  who  were  striving  to 
obtain  higher  wages,  "as  by  such  treatment  they  would  be  learned 
a  valuable  lesson,  and  other  strikers  would  take  warning  from  their 
fate."  So  it  seems, "handgrenades  for  strikers,"  and  "the  gallows  for 
Socialists,"  are  recommended  by  the  organ  of  monopoly  as  a  terror 
to  both. 


184  A.  B.  PARSONS' 

The  j  ury  was  a  packed  one ;  the  jury  was  composed  of  men  who 
arrogate  to  themselves  the  right  to  dictate  to  and  rob  the  wage- 
workers,  whom  they  regard  as  their  hired  men ;  they  regard  working- 
men  as  their  inferiors  and  not  "gentlemen."*  Thus  a  jury  was 
obtained,  whose  business  it  was  to  convict  us  of  Anarchy  whether  they 
found  any  proof  of  murder  or  not.  The  whole  trial  was  conducted  to 
condemn  Anarchy.  "Anarchy  is  on  trial,"  said  Mr.  Ingham.  "Hang 
these  eight  men  and  save  our  institutions,"  shouted  Grinnell.  "These 
are  the  leaders ;  make  an  example  of  them,"  yelled  the  prosecution 
in  addressing  the  Court  and  jury.  Yes,  we  are  Anarchists,  and  for 
this,  your  honor,  we  stand  condemned.  Can  it  be  that  men  are  to 
suffer  death  for  their  opinions  ?  "These  eight  defendants,"  said  the 
State's  Attorney  to  the  jury,  "were  picked  out  and  indicted  by  the 
grand  jury.  They  are  no  more  guilty  than  are  the  thousands  who 
follow  them.  They  were  picked  out  because  they  were  leaders. 
Convict  them  and  our  society  is  safe,"  shouted  the  prosecution. 
And  this  is  in  America,  the  land  for  which  our  fathers  fought  and 
freely  shed  their  blood  that  we,  their  posterity,  might  enjoy  the 
right  of  free  speech,  free  opinion,  free  press,  and  unmolested 
assemblage. 
*********  *  *  *  * 

When  I  saw  the  day  fixed  for  the  opening  of  this  trial,  knowing 
I  was  an  innocent  man,  and  also  feeling  that  it  was  my  duty  to 
come  forward  and  share  whatever  fate  had  in  store  for  my  com- 
rades, and  also  to  stand,  if  need  be,  on  the  scaffold,  and  vindicate 
the  rights  of  labor,  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  the  relief  of  the  op- 
pressed, I  returned.  How  did  I  return  ?  It  is  interesting,  but  it 
will  take  time  to  relate  it,  and  I  will  not  state  it.  I  ran  the  gauntlet. 
I  went  from  Waukesha  to  Milwaukee.  I  took  the  St.  Paul  train 
in  the  morning  at  the  Milwaukee  depot  and  came  to  Chicago; 
arrived  here  at  8 : 30,  I  suppose,  in  the  morning.  Went  to  the  house 
of  my  friend,  Mrs.  Ames,  on  Morgan  street.  Sent  for  my  wife  and 
had  a  talk  with  her.  I  sent  word  to  Capt.  Black  that  I  was  here 
and  prepared  to  surrender.  He  sent  word  back  to  me  that  he  was 
ready  to  receive  me.  I  met  him  at  the  threshold  of  this  building 
and  we  came  up  here  together.  1  stood  in  the  presence  of  this 
Court.  I  have  nothing,  even  now,  to  regret. 


*  The  jury  in  an  interview  spoke  of  themselves  as  a  jury  of  "gentlemen." 


SPEECH  IN  COURT.  185 

[NOTE. — Mr.  Parsons'  speech  was  eight  hours  in  delivery,  to  wit :  two 
hours  on  Friday  and  six  hours  on  Saturday.]  There  are  only  given  here  ex- 
tracts from  Mr.  Parsons'  able  speech  before  Judge  Gary  as  to  why  sentence  of 
death  should  not  be  pronounced  against  him.  The  speech  is  in  print  and  can 
be  had.] 


ALBEKT  B.  PAKSONS'  CASE  IN  FULL. 

Taken  from  the  Official  Record. 

Mr.  Parsons  had  just  been  in  Cincinnati  and  returned  to  Chicago 
on  May  4.  [.4 . 313,  Vol.  N.,  109.]  He  caused  a  notice  calling  a  meet- 
ing at  107  Fifth  avenue  on  the  South  Side,  on  Monday  evening,  May  4, 
to  be  inserted  in  the  Daily  News.  He  left  home  in  company  with 
his  wife,  Mrs.  Holmes,  a  lady  friend,  and  his  two  little  children. 
On  his  way  to  that  meeting  he  met  Mr.  Owen,  a  witness  for  tne 
State,  who  says  [A.  124,  Vol.  K.,  200,  201] :  "I  saw  Parsons  at  the 
corner  of  Eandolph  and  Halsted  streets  shortly  before  8  o'clock.  I 
asked  him  where  the  meeting  was  to  be  held ;  he  said  he  did  not 
know  anything  about  the  meeting.  I  asked  him  whether  he  was 
going  to  speak,  and  he  said  no,  he  was  going  to  the  South  Side. 
Mrs.  Parsons  and  some  children  came  up  just  then  and  Mr.  Parsons 
stopped  an  Indiana  street  car,  slapped  me  familiarly  on  the  back, 
and  asked  me  if  I  was  armed.  I  said :  'No ;  have  you  any  dynamite 
about  you?'  He  laughed,  and  Mrs.  Parsons  said:  'He  is  a  very 
dangerous  looking  man,  isn't  he  ?'  and  they  got  on  a  car  and  went 
east.  I  believe  Mr.  Heineman  was  with  me."  [A.  126,  Vol.  K.,  233.] 

A  request  for  speakers  at  the  Haymarket  meeting  was  sent  over 
to  the  meeting  on  the  South  Side.  That  request  found  Parsons.  He 
went  from  there  to  the  Haymarket,  on  the  Wbst  Side,  to  speak. 

Mr.  Parsons  spoke  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  Mr.  English,  the 
Tribune  reporter,  was  instructed  by  his  employers  to  take  only  the 
most  inflammatory  utterances  and  consequently  was  on  the  watch 
for  such.  His  account  of  Mr.  Parsons'  speech  occupies  but  a  single 
page  of  the  record. 

Mayor  Harrison,  who  heard  Parsons'  speech  and  attended  the 
meeting  for  the  purpose  of  dispersing  it  if  anything  should  occur  to 
require  interference,  left  the  meeting  at  the  end  of  that  speech  and 
told  Capt.  Bonfield,  at  the  station,  that  "nothing  had  occured  yet, 
or  looked  likely  to  occur,  to  require  interference,  and  that  he  had 
better  issue  orders  to  his  reserves  at  the  other  stations  to  go  home," 


186  A.  R.  PARSONS' 

whereupon  Harrison  himself  went  home.  [A.  174  and  175,  Vol.  L.r 
29,  31,  and  47.] 

After  Mr.  Parsons  Mr.  Fielden  spoke  twenty  minutes.  After 
Mr.  Fielden  had  been  speaking  some  ten  minutes  it  is  admitted  by 
all  the  witnesses  that  a  cloud,  accompanied  by  a  cold  wind,  swept 
over  the  northern  sky,  and  thereupon  Parsons  interrupted  Fielden, 
suggesting  an  adjournment  of  the  meeting  to  Zepf's  hall  (see  dia- 
gram of  Haymarket  meeting),  a  building  situated  at  the  north-east 
corner  of  Lake  and  Desplaines  streets  and  nearly  a  block  north 
from  the  Haymarket  meeting.  To  this  somebody  in  the  audience 
replied  that  the  hall  was  occupied  by  a  meeting  of  the  Furniture- 
Workers'  Union,  and  thereupon  Fielden  suggested  that  he  would 
be  through  in  a  few  minutes  and  then  they  would  all  go  home.  [A.  314, 
Vol.  N.,  113  ] 

This  evidence  is  established  by  witnesses  for  the  State  and  the 
defence. 

About  one-half  of  the  audience  dispersed  upon  Mr.  Parsons' 
motion  and  Mr.  Fielden's  suggestion.  Mr.  Parsons  got  down  from 
the  wagon  and  went  a  few  feet  north,  where  his  family  and  Mrs. 
Holmes  were  seated,  assisted  them  down,  and  they  went  together 
to  Zepf's  hall,  and  where  there  when  the  bomb  exploded.  [A.  224, 
238,  Vol.  M.,  125.} 

This  is  all  the  testimony  connecting  Mr.  Parsons  in  any  way 
with  the  Haymarket  meeting. 


PART  V. 


CHAPTEK  I. 


EEMINISCENCES  OF  ALBEET  K.  PAKSONS. 

How,  AS  A  YOUTH,  HE  WAS  REGARDED  IN  His  BOYHOOD  HOME — AN 
EXPRESSION  FROM  A  GENTLEMAN  WHO  KNEW  HIM  IN  THE  EARLY 
DAYS — "WHEN  DEATH  COMES  HE  WILL  FACE  IT  LIKE  A  THOROUGH- 
BRED"— A  PICTURE  OF  His  CHARACTER  DRAWN  BY  A  FRIEND  AND 
CO-LABORER  OF  LATER  YEARS — A  BRIEF  SUMMARY  OF  His  PART 
IN  THE  HAYMARKET  AFFAIR— His  EASY  SUCCESS  IN  ELUDING  THE 
VIGILANT  DETECTIVE  OFFICIALS — His  SOJOURN  AT  WAUKESHA — 
His  TRIUMPHANT  EETURN  AND  SURRENDER  IN  OPEN  COURT  AFTER 
RUNNING  THE  GAUNTLET  OF  SCORES  OF  SEARCHING  DETECTIVES — 
"I  PRESENT  MYSELF  FOR  TRIAL." 

PARSONS'  BOYHOOD  DAYS 
Taken  from  a  Correspondence  to  the  Courier-Journal,  Louisville,  Ky.,  September  21, 1886, 

IN  speaking  of  the  career  of  Anarchist  Parsons  in  Waco,  a  Mem- 
phis gentleman  who  was  intimate  with  him  there,  says :  "I  knew 
him  intimately  when  I  lived  in  Waco  in  1866.    In  fact,  we  have 
slept  together  more  than  once.    He  was  a  devilish  good  fellow,  too, 
and  I  am  sorry  to  know  that  he  is  in  such  a  scrape." 
"How  was  he  regarded  in  Waco  ?" 


190  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

"As  a  well-disposed,  well-mannered  young  man,  a  little  wild,  as 
most  of  us  where  in  those  days — in  fact,  as  wild  as  a  buck ;  but  I 
never  heard  of  his  doing  anything  desperate.  He  moved  in  the  best 
society  the  place  afforded,  and  his  pleasant  ways  made  him  welcome 
wherever  he  went.  He  was  not  at  all  reckless  or  quarrelsome,  but 
was  as  clean  grit  as  any  man  that  ever  drew  breath  in  Texas.  He 
showed  what  he  was  made  of  on  one  occasion,  when  there  was  a 
collision  between  the  citizens  and  the  Federal  soldiers  stationed  at 
Waco.  I  never  saw  a  braver  man  than  Albert  Parsons,  and,  mark 
my  words,  when  death  comes  he  will  face  it  like  a  thoroughbred." 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES  OF  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS. 
By  an  Old  Friend  and  Comrade. 

I  first  met  Albert  E.  Parsons  in  1880,  but  for  two  or  three  years 
had  few  opportunities  of  becoming  better  acquainted.  I  first  real- 
ized the  natural  power  and  vigor  of  his  character  at  a  mass-meeting 
of  the  Telegraphers'  Union  during  their  great  strike  in  1883.  On 
the  evening  of  August  3  he  delivered  a  speech  that  stirred  the 
large  audience  to  the  highest  pitch  of  enthusiasm.  His  eloquent  words 
put  new  strength  and  courage  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  were 
struggling  against  a  great  monopoly  for  a  chance  to  live,  and 
started  many  a  young  thinker  in  the  study  of  social  and  industrial 
science.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  speech  was  not  preserved  ; 
it  was  a  most  able  arraignment  of  the  present  system,  containing 
nothing  which  could  be  termed  "incendiary,"  being  full  of  logic  and 
fair  reasoning. 

In  the  winter  of  1883-4  I  joined  the  American  Group  of  the 
International,  and  for  over  two  years  missed  no  regular  meetings 
held  by  that  organization;  most  of  these  were  attended  by  Mr. 
Parsons,  and  nearly  always  addressed  by  him.  During  this  time  he 
made  frequent  agitation  trips,  speaking  wherever  an  opportunity 
occurred,  and  accepting  every  invitation  his  time  and  strength  would 
permit  of.  He  was  at  one  time  invited  to  present  his  views  of 
Socialism  to  a  society  connected  with  Dr.  Thomas'  church;  he 
there  made  a  most  remarkable  speech,  impressing  his  hearers  in 
spite  of  themselves  and  astonishing  the  learned  listeners  that  a 
"  workingman"  and  a  much-abused  Socialist  should  speak  to  them  so 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  191 

ably  and  so  well.  One  who  was  not  kindly  disposed  toward  the 
speaker's  theories,  after  hearing  him  on  this  occassion  proposed  in 
answer  to  John  Swinton's  published  request  for  the  coming  orator, 
the  name  of  Albert  E.  Parsons.  No  audience  or  circle  of  people 
ever  in  any  way  disconcerted  him.  Dignified  and  eloquent  before 
a  society  of  cultured  students,  he  was  also  genial,  witty,  and  sociable 
in  a  crowd  of  merry-makers ;  he  was  equal  in  debate  with  the  most 
learned,  and  could  at  the  same  time  make  himself  clearly  under- 
stood by  the  most  unlettered.  He  could  dive  deep  into  metaphysics 
or  philosophy  with  the  student,  and  exchange  light  repartee  and 
brilliant  nothings  with  the  gay  and  light-hearted.  My  home  at  that 
time  was  near  that  of  the  Parsons',  and  those  weekly  walks  with 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parsons  and  sometimes  one  or  two  other  friends  are 
memorable  incidents  in  my  life.  He  was  an  exellent  mimic,  and 
would  sometimes,where  he  thought  no  one  would  be  hurt,  "take  off" 
the  eccentricities  of  people  in  a  very  laughable  manner.  Whatever 
the  subject  talked  of  he  was  ever  interesting.  I  used  to  believe 
nothing  in  life  could  be  more  pleasant  than  to  gather  with  Mr. 
Parsons,  his  wife,  Mr.  Spies,  Mr.  Fielden,  and  others  around  a 
table,  or  in  a  social  circle,  and  listen  to  the  conversation  that  flowed 
and  sparkled  on  so  smoothly. 

I  was  appointed  by  the  Alarm  Publishing  Association  as  an 
assistant  editor  of  the  Alarm  in  January,  1885.  I  was  associated  with 
its  able  founder  from  that  time  until  the  appearance  of  the  last 
number  under  his  supervision,  April  24,  1886. 

Next  to  the  last  speech  I  heard  from  Mr.  Parsons  while  free 
was  in  March,  1886,  at  106  East  Eandolph  street,  on  his  return  from 
his  trip  through  the  eastern  coal  mines.  It  was  a  clear,  orderly, 
truthful  array  of  facts,  with  conclusions  most  ably  drawn  and  elo- 
quently presented. 

I  saw  him  next  on  the  4th  of  May  in  the  afternoon,  at  the 
Alarm  office. 

He  had  that  morning  returned  from  Cincinnati,  and  was  in- 
quiring about  the  meetings  that  were  being  arranged  in  the  city. 
I  went  home  with  his  wife  and  himself  and  took  supper,  and  from 
there  we,  with  their  children,  went  to  the  Group  meeting  held  in  the 
Alarm  office.  He  was  pleasant  and  talkative,  giving  us  incidents  of 
his  journey,  and  speaking  hopefully  of  the  future  of  our  cause.  The 
story  of  that  evening  has  often  been  told ;  how  he,  with  Fielden 


192  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

and  others,  were  sent  for  to  come  and  speak  at  the  Haymarket ;  how 
we  all  followed ;  how  they  addressed  the  large  meeting  as  they  had 
often  done  before ;  how  Bonfield's  men  were  hurried  on  to  break  up 
a  meeting  already  dispersing ;  how  the  fatal  bomb  was  thrown  by 
some  unknown  hand ;  how  the  crowd  was  scattered  and  shot  into. 

But  the  little  details  and  incidents  of  that  eventful  night  are 
not  so  well  known ;  some  never  will  be.  There  where  citizens  lying 
dead  with  police  bullets  in  their  breasts,  whose  fate  is  still  a  mystery. 
There  were  men  in  the  stations  who  were  never  heard  of  again,  and 
much  was  endured  that  will  probably  never  come  to  light.  When 
the  noise  of  the  explosion  broke  on  the  air  Mr.  Parsons  was  stand- 
ing near  the  window  of  Zepf's  saloon  looking  out ;  Mrs.  Parsons  and 
I  sat  not  far  away.  Fischer,  with  other  comrades,  was  in  the  room. 
Parsons  came  up  to  us  and  said :  "Don't  be  frightened  !  don't  be 
frightened !" 

"What  is  it?"  I  asked,  as  a  perfect  hailstorm  of  bullets  rattled 
about  our  ears. 

"I  do  not  know ;  may  be  the  Illinois  regiments  have  brought  up 
their  Gatling  gun." 

Bullets  whistled  past  us  through  the  open  door.  Fugitives  came 
running  in,  and  every  one  started  for  a  room  in  the  back  end  of  the 
building.  Some  one  shut  the  door  and  for  some  time  a  number  of 
us  were  shut  up  in  total  dcxkness,  ignorant  of  what  had  happened 
or  what  our  danger  was.  Presently  the  door  was  opened,  and  one 
after  another  we  came  out  and  stepped  into  the  street.  Every- 
thing seemed  quiet ;  from  where  we  stood  no  excitement  could  be 
noticed,  no  policemen  were  in  sight.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Parsons,  and 
myself  started  up  the  Desplaines  street  viaduct  to  go  home,  and 
shortly  afterward  Thomas  Brown  joined  us.  I  said  to  Mr.  Parsons : 
"I  do  not  know  what  has  happened,  or  whether  there  is  any  further 
danger,  but  we  may  be  sure  some  kind  of  a  conflict  has  occurred. 
Everybody  knows  you  and  they  all  know  your  influence.  If  any 
of  our  boys  are  in  danger  you  are.  Whatever  has  happened,  leave 
the  city  for  a  few  days  at  least.  We  can't  spare  you  yet,.and  in  the 
excited  condition  the  people  must  be  in  we  do  not  know  what  might 
happen  to  you." 

"I  do  not  think  I  ought  to  go — do  you?" 

"Yes — go ;  there  is  no  harm  in  going  away  for  a  few  days  until 
we  see  what  is  the  matter  and  have  time  to  collect  our  thoughts  and 


MR.  PARSONS  AS  A  CARPENTER  IN  WAUKESHA 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  193 

determine  what  is  best  to  do ;  you  do  not  want  to  be  taken  un- 
awares ;  be  at  a  safe  distance,  and  when  you  see  you  are  needed 
come,  as  I  know  you  always  will." 

Many  other  arguments  I  used  to  induce  the  brave,  home-loving 
man  to  depart  before  he  at  last  consented.  He  had  not  money 
enough  with  him  to  go  far, and  Mr.  Brown  quickly  tendered  him  $5. 
It  was  decided  best  for  his  wife  not  to  accompany  him,  so  there  on 
the  viaduct  we  separated,  Brown  going  one  way,  Mrs.  Parsons  an- 
other, and  we  two  toward  the  Northwestern  depot. 

Just  before  he  turned  away  he  said :  "Kiss  me,  Lucy.  We  do 
not  know  when  we  will  meet  again,"  and  there  seemed  a  sad  almost 
prophetic,  tone  in  his  voice ;  so,  hurriedly  and  with  what  unexpressed 
feelings  none  can  ever  know,  their  parting,  the  end  of  a  long  period 
of  uninterrupted  and  happy  companionship,  took  place.  We  walked 
to  the  depot,  and  I  there  purchased  a  ticket  for  Turner  Junction,  the 
nearest  point  to  our  home  that  he  could  reach  that  night.  Mr. 
Parsons  seemed  very  quiet,  almost  passive  and  indifferent,  as  though 
for  the  time  being  he  was  in  other  hands  than  his  own.  He  said 
little,  but  asked  me  twice  if  I  really  thought  it  was  best  for  him  to 
go  away.  At  the  last  he  said :  "You  will  be  a  good  friend  to  my 
wife,  will  you  not  ?  I  hope  they  will  not  suffer  while  I  am  gone — 
but  I  may  be  back  soon."  He  made  me  take  part  of  the  money 
he  had  with  him  to  his  wife,  and  warmly  shook  my  hand,  standing 
on  the  platform  as  the  train  began  to  move. 

Another  hand  will  write  of  his  experiences  for  the  next  few 
days ;  I  will  take  up  his  story  where  he  arrives  in  Waukesha,  Wis- 
consin. 

He  arrived  at  the  home  of  Daniel  Hoan  on  the  10th  of  May. 
Mr.  Hoan  was  a  reader  of  the  Alarm,  had  written  to  its  editor,  but 
had  never  met  him.  He  is  an  earnest,  whole-souled  man,  with 
some  peculiar  views  of  his  own,  which  he  very  ably  explains  and 
defends ;  but  without  understanding  precisely  "what  the  Anarchists 
of  Chicago  wanted,  anyhow,"  his  heart  went  out  to  them,  and  he 
was  certain  they  had  a  great  part  to  play  in  the  redemption  of  the 
world.  He  says  of  Mr.  Parsons'  arrival : 

"When  I  heard  his  knock  at  the  door  I  felt  that  some  one  out 
of  the  common  was  there.  I  went  and  opened  it  myself.  "The  dear 
little  man"  stood  there,  looking  at  me  with  a  smile  half  sad,  half 
merry.  'Come  in,  and  God  bless  you,'  I  said.  'The  Lord  sent  you 


194  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

here— you've  come  to  the  right  place.'  I  knew  who  it  was,  and  I 
knew  it  was  all  right.  I  took  him  to  the  shop,  and  we  talked  it 
over.  I  told  him  he  would  be  as  safe  as  a  child  of  my  own,  and 
that  the  Lord  would  preserve  him  to  do  his  work  yet.  We  got  out 
some  old  clothes,  a  big  gray  coat,  and  a  wide-brimmed  hat.  Then 
I  brought  him  in  and  introduced  him  to  the  family  as  '  Mr.  Jack- 
son,' and  said  he  would  stay  and  work  for  me  awhile." 

His  hair  and  beard  soon  grew  long,  and,  as  Mr.  Parsons  was 
one  of  the  neatest  of  dressers,  arrayed  thus  he  was  well  disguised. 
Some  of  the  ladies  of  the  village,  on  becoming  somewhat  acquaint- 
ed, and  noting  his  intelligent  mind  and  interesting  conversation 
(qualities  that  it  was  difficult  to  disguise),  said  :  "What  a  nice  man 
Mr.  Jackson  seems  to  be.  What  a  pity  he  cannot  dress  better !" 
Another  exclaimed :  "But  how  neatly  his  shoes  are  always  kept. 
He  must  have  dressed  well  at  some  time  in  his  life.  Suppose  we 
club  together  and  buy  him  a  nice  coat,  that  old  one  is  so  shabby 
and  big  for  him." 

Little  thinking  how  more  than  useless  a  well-fitting  coat  would 
have  been  to  him,  they  actually  talked  up  the  project,  which,  but 
for  subsequent  events,  might  have  been  carried  out. 

"Mr.  Jackson"  assisted  in  Mr.  Hoan's  pump  factory  and  did 
the  carpenter  work  in  the  alteration  of  his  dwelling  house.  The 
turret,  porch,  and  lattice-work  around  them  ornament  the  house 
to-day,  and  probably  will  remain  until  they  fall  away  from  decay, 
as  a  memento  of  the  martyr's  taste  and  handiwork.  Whatever 
work  Mr.  Parsons  undertook  was  well  done,  though  he  had  previ- 
ously known  nothing  of  the  technical  details.  He  brought  his  keen, 
analytical  mind  to  bear  upon  the  processes  of  the  work  in  hand  and 
quickly  solved  them,  were  it  a  social  problem  or  the  forming  of  a 
complete  steamer  from  a  block  of  wood. 

They  said  he  took  great  interest  in  his  work.  In  trying  differ- 
ent effects  in  the  ornamental  carpenter  work  he  would  climb  down, 
step  into  the  road  in  front  of  the  house,  and,  with  arms  akimbo, 
exclaim,  if  satisfied :  "Well,  that's  immense  !" 

Sometimes,  when  at  work  near  the  eaves,  he  would  talk  to  the 
girls  and  children  sitting  on  the  porch  beneath,  telling  stories  of 
his  boyhood  days,  scenes  of  slavery  days,  and  sometimes  giving 
vivid  pictures  of  the  lives  of  poverty  and  toil  the  people  in  the 
great  cities  endured,  inculcating  even  there  quiet  lessons  in  the  new 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  195 

economic  philosophy.  The  girl  who  lived  with  them  at  the  time 
said  she  always  remembered  one  remark  of  "Mr.  Jackson's" ;  it 
was  new  to  her  then,  and  impressed  her  deeply.  It  was  that  "men 
and  women  were  always  as  good  as  their  conditions  allowed  them 
to  be." 

Beautiful  Waukesha,  with  its  green  hills  and  clear  fountains, 
must  forever  be  endeared  to  those  who  cherish  the  memory  of  our 
martyrs,  for  here  the  last  free  days  of  one,  whose  story  we  are  tell- 
ing, were  passed.  One  will  always  look  on  the  winding  paths,  o'er- 
shadowed  with  trees,  the  rolling,  velvety  hills,  the  cozy  nooks,  the 
sheltered,  sparkling  springs  with  deepened  interest,  knowing  that 
here  and  there  his  free  feet  pressed  the  earth  and  all  around  his 
eyes  rested  for  the  last  time  on  the  free,  fair  world.  His  favorite 
resort  was  a  seat  on  Spence's  hill,  just  above  the  Acme  spring. 
From  this  point  the  whole  village,  nestled  in  softest  foliage,  with 
the  low,  misty  hills  beyond,  is  spread  like  a  beautiful  panorama  be- 
fore the  eye.  Above,  the  leafy  branches  wave  in  a  slow,  steady  mur- 
mur, and  the  fresh,  invigorating  air  sweeps  through,  breathing 
of  health  and  strength  and  freedom  as  though  slavery  had  no  ex- 
istence in  the  universe.  Farther  up  the  slope  the  trees  grow  thickly, 
like  the  depths  of  a  forest,  and  beneath  them  spring  up  various  spe- 
cies of  ferns,  grasses,  and  wild  flowers. 

Mr.  Parsons  every  morning  would  hasten,  with  that  quick, 
springy  tread  of  his,  to  the  Acme  spring,  quaff  its  crystal  waters, 
and  on  up  through  the  trees  for  an  hour's  ramble.  At  breakfast  he 
would  come  in,  bright  and  animated,  with  his  hands  full  of  the 
ferns  and  flowers  he  loved  so  well.  Toward  evening  he  would  go 
and  recline  on  the  rustic  seat  above  mentioned,  and,  gazing  dream- 
ily on  the  lovely  view  before  him,  become  lost  in  deep  reveries.  Sad 
and  anxious  must  have  been  those  thoughts,  brightened,  perhaps, 
by  the  lofty  consciousness  that  always  belongs  with  a  strong,  noble 
character.  Such  a  one  can  never,  under  any  circumstances,  be  ab- 
solutely miserable  and  despondent.  Those  reflections  would  be 
dearly  prized  by  those  who  will  come  after  him,  could  they  have 
been  recorded ;  but  he  has  left  us  in  letters  and  speeches  much  that 
had  part  in  them,  no  doubt.  He  made  friends  with  all  whom  he 
met,  as  he  ever  did,  even  in  the  humble  guise  he  had  taken.  The 
children,  the  young  boys  in  the  shop,  the  neighbors,  the  brothers 
and  sisters  of  Mr.  Needham's  little  church,  all  learned  to  love  "Mr. 


196  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

Jackson"  and  be  eager  to  converse  with  him.  Upon  one  or  two  oc- 
casions he  entertained  the  congregation  of  the  little  church  with  a 
talk  or  lecture,  which  pleased  them  very  much.  He  had  a  pleasant 
way  of  advancing  his  own  ideas  without  antagonizing  those  who 
held  different  opinions ;  and  this  gentle  way  of  his  sometimes  led 
people  to  believe  he  "fell  in"  with  them  or  was  not  well  grounded  in 
his  own  views,  but  when  occasion  required,  and  the  full  force  of  the 
man's  intellect  and  character  came  out,  they  found  how  much  they 
were  mistaken. 

One  day,  while  at  the  desk  writing,  Annie,  the  girl  before  men- 
tioned, came  in  quite  suddenly  and  said : 

"  Say — they  say  you  are  Mr.  Parsons — don't  you  think — 

Mr.  Parsons  never  moved,  but  he  said  afterward  he  could  feel 
his  face  grow  cold  and  white. 

"Is  that  so  ?    Who  says  so  ?" 

"Oh,  a  Mr. ,  and  Mr. ,  and  they  say  Mr. —  told  them." 

In  a  few  minutes  Mr.  Hoan  came  in.  Parsons  took  him  into 
the  next  room  and  said  quickly :  "I'll  have  to  get  out  of  this — right 
away  too.  They  have  it  about  town  that  I  am  Parsons.  I  am  no 
longer  safe  here." 

Hoan  would  sometimes  use  some  religious  swear- words  when 
excited,  and  began  to  make  vehement  inquiries  as  to  what  had  been 
said.  When  all  was  told  tliat  was  known,  he  said : 

"Just  you  keep  quiet.  I  believe  I  can  fix  this  all  right  yet.  They 
know  nothing  yet — they  are  only  surmising." 

And  so  Mr.  Parsons  remained  "quiet,"  while  his  honor  and 
safety  were  in  jeopardy,  and  Mr.  Hoan  went  out,  traced  up  the 
story,  called  them  "a  pack  of  fools,"  and  asked  if  Jackson  looked 
anything  like  the  picture  of  Parsons,  and  much  more  to  that  effect. 
The  surmise  was  quieted,  and  if  anyone  in  Waukesha  suspected 
Jackson's  identity,  nothing  further  was  said. 

Some  correspondence,  after  the  first  two  weeks'  absence,  was 
accomplished  between  himself  and  his  wife  and  the  principal  attor- 
ney, Capt.  Black.  Up  to  this  time,  1  believe,  but  two  persons  in 
the  world  knew  where  Albert  E.  Parsons  was,  and  they  were  Mr. 
Hoan  and  Mr.  Holmes,  of  Geneva,  Illinois.  In  his  first  letter  he 
asked  if  they  thought  best  he  should  return,  and  expressed  his  willing- 
ness to  do  so.  A  consultation  of  the  attorneys  and  most  interested 
comrades  was  called,  in  which  opinions  were  about  equally  divided. 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  197 

Elack,  having  faith  in  abstract  justice,  was  for  his  return ;  Foster, 
from  a  professional  standpoint,  was  against  it.  His  wife  could  only 
say  that  he  should  do  what  he  thought  was  wise  and  right.  The 
result  of  the  consultation  was  conveyed  to  him. 

On  the  19th  of  June,  1886,  Mr.  Parsons  wrote  a  letter  saying  he 
would  return ;  this  letter  Mr.  Hoan  himself  conveyed  to  the  city, 
and  in  a  very  adroit  manner  managed  to  make  himself  known  to 
the  right  parties,  consult  with  them,  obtain  their  instructions,  and 
depart  for  home  without  attracting  the  notice  (  f  a  single  one  of  the 
many  detectives  who  were  on  the  alert— "looking  for  Parsons." 

Sunday  morning  it  was  decided  that  Mr.  Parsons  should  start 
for  Chicago  that  night.  Through  the  day  he  was  rather  quiet,  but 
pleasant  and  cheerful;  and  in  the  afternoon  he  proposed  they 
should  all  make  a  last  visit  to  Spence's  hill.  He  sat  on  his  favorite 
seat  a  long  time  in  serious  meditation,  but  finally  began  to  talk 
cheerily  with  the  others,  and  in  a  boyish  mood  lay  at  full  length  on 
the  ground  and  rolled  down  the  long  hill.  He  climbed  up,  flushed 
and  laughing,  and  lapsed  no  more  into  quiet  reverie.  The  worst 
had  been  lived  through.  Afterward  he  said  that  when  he  wrote  his 
name  to  the  letter  saying  he  would  return,  he  felt  that  he  was  sign- 
ing his  death  warrant.  He  had  no  hope  in  Courts ;  he  was  almost 
certain  what  his  fate  would  be ;  he  knew  that  he  could  be  safe  and 
free  for  years  if  he  chose  it.  But  his  comrades  were  in  peril ;  the 
cause  he  loved  needed  him ;  the  whole  world  waited  expectantly  to 
hear  more  of  this  new  philosopher,  hitherto  but  a  word  of  terror ; 
the  events  to  come,  which  were  to  change  the  course  of  the  century, 
needed  but  his  presence  to  complete  their  majestic  significance ; 
and  with  his  character  it  was  impossible  to  remain  away  in  safety 
and  hiding.  That  evening,  at  a  late  hour,  the  team  hitched  to  a 
light  wagon  stood  ready  to  convey  Mr.  Parsons  to  Milwaukee.  A 
train  left  that  city  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning,  which  he  intended 
to  take.  A  young  son  of  Mr.  Hoan's  drove ;  and  the  long  ride  of 
twenty  miles  through  the  still  summer  night  aluteg  the  smooth  roads 
was  easily  accomplished ;  they  arrived  at  Milwaukee  with  two  hours 
to  spare.  As  they  were  entering  the  city,  a  policeman  laid  his  hand 
on  the  horse's  bridle,  and  wanted  to  know  what  they  were  doing  at 
that  time  of  night.  The  boy  answered : 

"I  am  going  to  take  this  gentleman  to  the  train." 

The  officer  peered  curiously  into  the  wagon. 


198  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

"You  seem  to  have  come  a  good  distance,"  and  putting  his  hand 
on  the  horse's  neck  said : 

"She's  pretty  warm !" 

Mr.  Parsons,  to  divert  his  attention,  said  laughingly:  "It  is. 
not  a  '  she,'  it  is  a  'he.'  " 

The  man  laughed,  and  turned  away;  he  bad  looked  quite 
sharply  at  a  basket  in  the  wagon  at  their  feet,  which  contained  Mr. 
Parsons'  own  clothes,  as  though  he  would  like  to  explore  its  con- 
tents but  walked  away,  saying  he  "was  looking  for  a  man  that  had 
stolen  something  in  the  city." 

The  boy,  wholly  ignorant  of  whom  he  was  carrying,  said :  "What 
was  the  officer  looking  for,  I  wonder.  Did  he  think  we  had  bomba 
in  our  basket?" 

Another  incident  occurred  when  near  home,  which  showed  how 
near  and  yet  how  far  the  great  Chicago  police  were  to  gaining  their 
greatest  desire.  As  the  train  neared  Kinzie  street,  slowing  up  a» 
usual  at  that  point,  Mr.  Parsons  thought  best  to  alight  there, 
rather  than  to  go  on  to  the  depot.  Morning  was  mistily  dawning, 
and  the  great  city  lay  in  shrouded  silence.  He  leaped  from  the 
train,  which  was  gliding  along  at  a  swifter  rate  than  he  had  calcu- 
lated upon,  and  fell,  rolling  over  once  or  twice  before  he  caught 
himself.  A  policeman  who  stood  near  came  and  assisted  him  to 
his  feet. 

"Are  yez  hurt,  now?"  queried  the  servant  of  the  law,  feeling 
over  him  for  broken  bones. 

"No,  I  thank  ye,"  he  answered  awkwardly,  as  became  the  poor 
old  farmer  he  looked  to  be,  "only  shaken  up  a  bit.  I'll  be  all  right 
in  a  minit  or  two." 

The  policeman  looked  at  the  queer  little  man,  with  his  half- 
grown  iron-gray  beard  and  long  hair,  his  poorly  fitting  old  clothes, 
big  slouch-hat,  and  the  market  basket  on  his  arm,  and  said :  "What 
d'ye  do  that  f er  any  how  ?  Don't  jump  off  any  more  trains  when 
they're  going  loike  that  now.  And  d'ye  know  where  yez  be  going  ?" 

"Oh  yes;  I've  been  there  before,  and  only  jumped  off  because 
'twas  nearer.  I'll  bid  you  good  day,  sir." 

And  the  policeman  allowed  the  little  old  farmer  to  walk  away, 
never  dreaming  that  he  had  put  his  hands  on  the  much-wanted 
Parsons.  Had  he  lost  his  presence  of  mind  for  a  moment  he  might 
have  been  discovered.  From  this  adventure  he  went  on  his  way 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  199 

undisturbed  until  he  reached  the  house  of  Mrs.  Ames  on  Morgan 
street.  The  lady  knew  him  at  once,  quickly  drew  him  in,  shut 
the  door,  and  in  the  fullness  of  her  heart  and  her  joy  that  he 
was  thus  far  safe  from  the  hands  of  the  detectives,  she  embraced, 
kissed,  and  cried  over  him,  so  she  says,  and  as  any  good  sister  com- 
rade would  have  done. 

A  brief  and  indirect  note  was  sent  to  his  wife.  Though  burning 
with  impatience  and  anxiety,  she  sauntered  carelessly  along  the 
streets  until  near  the  house,  knowing  that  detectives  were  likely  to 
be  dogging  every  step ;  they  missed  it  for  once,  as  in  a  few 
minutes  she  was  once  more  for  a  brief  time  united  with  her  hus- 
band. 

Swiftly  and  carefully  the  comrades  worked  that  forenoon  to 
complete  the  arrangements  for  his  entrance  into  Court.  At  2  o'clock 
Capt.  Black  was  pacing  impatiently  up  and  down  the  front  steps  of 
the  court-house ;  in  a  few  minutes  a  hack  drove  swiftly  up.  A  lady 
and  two  men  alighted.    Capt.  Black  shook  hands  silently  but  in- 
tensely with  one  of  them,  gave  him  his  arm,  and  proceeded  up  the 
stairway.    As  they  passed  the  first  landing  James  Bon  field  turned, 
looked  after  him,  and  said :  "Who  was  that  fellow  with  Black  ?" 
A  reporter  said : 
"I  believe  it  is  Parsons." 

"Not  much,"  a  detective  near  by  exclaimed :  "Say,  we're  look- 
ing for  Parsons,  and  don't  you  forget  it." 

But  Bonfield  said :  "I'll  be  d d,  if  it  ain't," and  started  after 

them. 

Meanwhile  Capt.  Black  and  his  strange  companion,  now  neatly 
dressed,  shaved,  and  barbered,  were  advancing  slowly  toward  the 
Court.  All  eyes  were  fixed  upon  them  in  strained  expectancy. 
Suddenly  Grinnell,  whose  mean  soul  is  incapable  of  appreciating 
a  sublime  act,  sprang  to  his  feet  and  cried  out :  "I  see  Albert  Par- 
sons in  the  room  and  demand  his  instant  arrest. " 

But  no  officer  made  the  arrest.  Capt.  Black  in  a  dignified  man- 
ner said :  "This  man  is  under  my  care  and  such  a  demand  is  an  in- 
sult to  me." 

They  stood  before  the  Judge,  whose  ideas  of  justice  were  yet 
untried. 

"I  present  myself  for  trial  with  my  comrades,  your  Honor." 
"You  will  take  a  seat  with  the  prisoners  Mr.  Parsons,"  and  in  a 


200  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

few  minutes  more  the  cry  had  gone  down,  had  flown  over  the  city, 
up  into  the  press  rooms,  and  away  through  the  country,  flashing 
over  a  thousand  wires,  that  "Parsons  had  given  himself  up  in 
Court !" 

The  sharp  detectives — where  were  they  ? 

He  took  his  seat  with  his  noble  comrades,  never  to  depart  a 
free  man.  Voluntarily  he  gave  up  liberty  for  a  cause  he  loved 
better  than  his  life.  That  night  the  prison  doors  closed  upon  him 
never  to  open  for  him  alive ;  the  stone  walls  shut  out  the  fair,  free 
earth  forever — and  man  repaid  an  act  of  unprecedented  devotion 
with — death. 

LIZZIE  M.  HOLMES. 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  201 


CHAPTER  II. 


MR.  PARSONS  AT  GENEVA. 

HE  is  AT  THE  RESIDENCE  OF  MR.  HOLMES  FROM  EARLY  MORNING,  ON 
MAY  5,  1886,  UNTIL  THE  AFTERNOON  OF  THE  NEXT  DAY — THE 
STORY  OF  THOSE  Two  DAYS  OF  INTENSE  EXCITEMENT  AND  AGONIZ- 
ING UNCERTAINTY  GRAPHICALLY  TOLD  BY  HOLMES — BELIEVING 
THAT  A  GENERAL  MASSACRE  OF  ALL  SOCIALISTS  HAD  TAKEN  PLACE, 
MR.  PARSONS  WOULD  RETURN  TO  CHICAGO  AND  DIE  WITH  His  COM- 
RADES— THE  STARTLING  RUMORS  WHICH  GAINED  CURRENCY  AND 
CREDENCE — His  UNWAVERING  FAITH  IN  THE  PEOPLE  AND  CONFI- 
DENCE IN  THE  ULTIMATE  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  RIGHT. 

MS.  LUCY  E.  PARSONS— Dear  Comrade: 

You  ask  me  to  write  an  account  of  the  few  memorable 
days  during  which  I  had  the  proud  honor  of  offering  the 
shelter  of  my  home  in  Geneva,  Illinois,  to  our  dear  comrade,  your 
beloved  husband.  I  am  only  too  glad  to  enter  upon  this  labor  of 
love,  and  to  pay  my  tribute  of  esteem  to  the  worthy  wife  of  such 
a  grand  man  by  narrating  in  detail  the  incidents  of  that  exciting 
period. 

The  5th  of  May,  1886 !  Deep  into  my  brain  is  burned  the  re- 
membrance of  that  day.  As  I  write  every  detail  of  every  incident 
stands  out  prominently  before  me,  and  I  seem  to  feel  again  the  ex- 
citement, uncertainty,  and  apprehension  of  the  time. 

On  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  May  we  had  received  your  urgent 
telegram  requesting  my  wife's  immediate  presence  in  Chicago.  We 
rightly  conjectured  that  she  was  needed  in  the  city  to  assist  in  or- 
ganizing the  working  girls,  particularly  the  cloak-makers.  The  ex- 


202  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

citement  in  Chicago,  which  had  been  increasing  for  several  days, 
was  then  intense,  and  it  was  believed  that  advantage  could  be  taken 
of  the  clubbing  and  shooting  of  workingmen  at  McCormick's  reaper 
factory  the  day  before  to  effect  a  powerful  organization  of  a  large 
majority  of  the  working  people  in  the  city  for  the  purpose  of  secur- 
ing important  concessions  from  the  employers  of  labor. 

I  arose  late  on  the  morning  of  the  5th,  and,  as  was  my  usual 
custom,  strolled  leisurely  down  to  the  village  to  procure  the  morn- 
ing paper,  little  dreaming  of  the  startling  sensation  it  would  con- 
tain. Half  an  hour  later  I  was  sitting  alone  in  my  room,  uncon- 
scious of  aught  save  the  exciting  news  I  was  devouring.  My  back 
was  turned  to  the  door,  and  I  did  not  hear  it  open. 

"Good  morning !  How  do  you  do?"  said  a  well-known  voice 
in  my  ear. 

Springing  to  my  feet  I  caught  the  hand  extended  to  me.  For 
several  moments  we  stood  with  our  feet,  our  knees,  almost  our 
breasts,  touching,  and  hands  clasped  in  that  strong  embrace.  For 
a  long  time  we  stood  thus,  our  eyes  riveted  each  upon  the  other's 
face.  His  look  searched  the  recesses  of  my  inmost  soul ;  my  gaze 
met  his  unflinchingly.  At  last  I  broke  the  silence. 

"You  are  from  Chicago?"  I  said. 

He  replied:    "lam." 

And  then,  our  hands  still  tightly  interlocked,  he  gave  me  a  brief 
description  of  the  fearful  scenes  and  incidents  of  the  previous 
night.  Then  he  told  me  of  his  wonderful  departure ;  how,  accom- 
panied by  my  wife,  he  had  walked  to  the  depot  of  the  Chicago  & 
Northwestern  railway,  he  taking  the  midnight  train  for  Geneva ; 
how  he  had  left  the  train  at  Turner  Junction  and  stayed  at  a  hotel 
till  morning,  reaching  Geneva  about  9 :30  o'clock  on  Wednesday 
morning. 

We  spent  most  of  the  forenoon  in  discussing  the  situation,  and 
he  gave  me  an  account  of  the  principal  events  which  had  trans- 
pired since  the  eight-hour  agitation  had  reached  its  highest  limit. 
Shortly  after  noon  I  went  out  to  learn  what  I  could  of  the  situation 
in  Chicago.  All  sorts  of  wild  rumors  were  floating  about.  Some 
said  the  city  had  been  set  on  fire  and  was  already  half  consumed  ; 
others  that  the  Anarchists  had  destroyed  the  City  Hall,  and  in  con- 
sequence a  general  massacre  of  all  Socialists  and  their  known  sym- 
pathizers was  in  progress.  I  was  met  everywhere  with  scowling 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  203 

faces  and  looks  of  suspicion.  Even  those  who  had  been  the  day 
before  my  warmest  friends  shunned  me,  or  muttered  maledictions 
against  the  Anarchists,  for  it  was  generally  known  that  I  was  a 
radical. 

I  hastened  back  and  told  Comrade  Parsons  what  I  had  seen, 
and  heard.  Meantime  he  had  not  been  idle;  but,  as  previously 
agreed  between  us,  he  had  written  a  scorching  editorial  for  the  next 
number  of  the  Alarm,  denouncing  in  strong  language  the  unpro- 
voked and  unlawful  attack  upon  the  Haymarket  meeting  by  Bonfield 
and  his  uniformed  ruffians.  Neither  of  us  at  that  time  dreamed 
that  the  assistant  editor  of  the  Alarm  (Mrs.  Holmes),  as  well  as  the 
editors  and  compositors  of  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung,  had  already  been 
arrested,  or  that  the  Alarm  had  been  entirely  suppressed. 

When  I  told  him  of  the  rumors  in  circulation  in  the  village  he 
became,  for  the  first  time,  greatly  excited.  Never  doubting,  in  the 
first  moment,  the  authenticity  of  the  rumors,  his  first  impulse,  very 
naturally,  was  to  return  to  the  city  and  die  with  his  friends  and  his 
family.  He  did  not  doubt  but  that  every  Socialist  in  Chicago 
would  be  massacred,  yet  he  hesitated  not  in  making  his  choice — he 
would  die  with  them.  He  soon,  however,  became  calm  again,  and 
wisely  determined  to  wait  for  the  news  of  the  next  day.  It  was 
mutually  agreed  that  if  the  morrow's  tidings  confirmed  the  current 
rumors,  we  would  both  immediately  return  to  the  city. 

About  4  o'clock  I  again  went  to  the  telegraph  office,  and  to  other 
places  where  I  could  hear  tidings  from  Chicago.  The  first  man  I 
met  gravely  informed  me  that  he  had  just  received  a  dispatch  that 
a  terrible  conflict  had  taken  place  between  the  police  and  the 
workingmen ;  that  over  a  score  of  dynamite  bombs  had  been 
thrown,  destroying  much  property  and  many  lives.  In  the  excite- 
ment of  the  moment  I  fully  believed  the  report  to  be  true,  but  by  a 
great  effort  I  succeeded  in  calming  myself  before  reaching  home, 
and  told  Comrade  Parsons  that  there  was  no  reliable  news,  care- 
fully suppressing  any  mention  of  my  informant's  story.  This  I 
did  because  it  seemed  more  reasonable  to  wait  for  reliable  informa- 
tion, which  would  surely  come  by  the  newspapers  and  mails  early 
the  next  morning.  If  the  very  worst  should  prove  to  be  true,  noth- 
ing would  be  lost  by  a  few  hours'  delay,  while  the  time  spent  in 
waiting  could  be  profitably  made  use  of  in  deciding  upon  a  definite 
plan  of  action. 


204  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

Many  half-formed  plans  were  made  that  night,  to  be  completed 
and  carried  out  on  the  following  days.  Up  to  this  time  Comrade 
Parsons  had  not,  for  a  single  moment,  thought  of  flight.  All  our 
talk  was  of  our  probable  return  to  Chicago,  and  the  result  of  the 
breaking  up  of  the  Haymarket  meeting.  I  confess  I  was  even  dis- 
posed to  take  a  more  gloomy  view  of  the  future  than  your  husband. 
His  belief  in  the  righteousness  of  our  cause  impelled  him  to  the 
opinion  that  in  the  struggle  then  probably  going  on  the  people 
would  be  found  on  the  side  of  truth  and  right,  and  that  we  should 
eventually  triumph.  For  once  my  pessimistic  disposition  saved  me 
from  terrible  disappointment. 

I  had  a  better  opportunity  that  night  to  know  our  comrade 
than  ever  before.  Like  the  true  Revolutionist  he  was,  he  longed 
for  the  final  conflict,  and  was  ready  to  face  any  danger,  to  do  any 
deed  of  daring,  in  order  to  strengthen  the  side  of  the  right.  He 
fully  expected  soon  to  fight  and  die  for  the  cause  he  loved  so  dearly. 
He  chafed  and  grew  impatient  at  what  seemed  to  him  unnecessary 
delay.  I  fully  believe,  had  I  not  used  arguments  and  entreaties  to 
dissuade  him,  that  he  would  have  hastened  to  Chicago  that  night. 
He  already  thought  himself  alone  in  the  world.  He  never  doubted 
for  a  moment  that,  if  the  occasion  required  it,  his  heroic  wife  would 
sacrifice  her  life  in  the  struggle  for  economic  liberty.  He  wanted 
to  be  on  the  field  of  action,  and  in  the  thickest  of  the  fray. 

As  early  as  possible  the  next  morning  I  procured  copies  of  the 
city  papers.  There  we  learned  the  actual  state  of  affairs ;  that 
Fielden,  Spies,  Fischer,  Mrs.  Holmes,  and  the  entire  working  force 
of  the  Arbeiter-Zeitung  had  been  arrested,  and  that  he  (Parsons) 
was  a  hunted  outlaw,  against  whom  all  the  forces  of  Government 
and  society  were  to  be  invoked.  All  our  plans  were,  therefore,  made 
for  his  immediate  security.  It  was  absolutely  necessary  that  a 
safer  retreat  should  be  found,  as  it  was  only  a  matter  of  a  short 
time — possibly  of  a  few  hours — when  my  house  would  be  searched. 
He  had  already  been  seen,  though  not  recognized,  by  one  of  the 
neighbors.  Early  in  the  morning,  while  working  in  my  little  gar- 
den patch,  he  had  surprised  me  by  boldly  walking  out  of  the  house, 
and  insisted  upon  helping  me  in  my  work.  While  thus  engaged 
the  occupant  of  the  next  house  came  to  his  back  door  and  accosted 
me,  making  some  remark  about  the  weather. 

The  evening  papers  gave  us  the  information  that  detectives 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  205 

were  already  scouring  the  country  in  every  direction  in  their  search 
for  Parsons.  To  delay  longer  was  dangerous.  Knowing  that  he 
had  many  friends  in  Kansas,  I  suggested  his  going  there,  disguised 
in  the  best  manner  possible.  He  had  already  shaved  off  his  mus- 
tache, which  altered  his  appearance  amazingly.  At  length  he  de- 
clared his  intention  of  going  to  Waukesha,  and  at  once.  He  took 
off  his  collar  and  neck-scarf,  tucked  his  pantaloons  in  his  boots, 
and  in  other  ways  changed  his  appearance.  At  first  he  deter- 
mined, if  stopped,  to  sell  his  life  dearly,  b*ut,  after  talking  the  mat- 
ter over,  decided  it  was  better  to  go  entirely  unarmed.  He  entered 
my  house  trim,  neat — a  city  gentleman ;  he  left  it  looking  like  a  re- 
spectable tramp. 

I  directed  him  how  to  proceed  to  Elgin,  by  way  of  St.  Charles. 
At  the  former  place  he  was  to  take  train  for  his  Wisconsin  retreat. 
With  hearts  heavy  with  apprehension  we  watched  him,  as  he  walked 
carelessly  along  the  dusty  road,  until  he  was  out  of  sight.  The  next 
time  I  saw  him  he  was  behind  prison  bars,  a  martyr  to  his  convic- 
tions of  duty— a  victim  of  those  who  knew  neither  mercy  nor 
justice.  Yours  fraternally, 

WILLIAM  HOLMES. 


206  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 


CHAPTER  III. 


A  CHAPTER  OF  HISTORY. 

AN  ANALYTICAL  STUDENT  OF  HUMAN  MOTIVES  TELLS  SOME  HITHERTO 
UNPUBLISHED  FACTS — MR.  ALBERT  R.  PARSONS'  FIRMNESS  IN  THE 
HOUR  OF  AWFUL  TEMPTATION — HE  SCORNED  LIFE  AS  THE  PRICE  OF 
APOSTASY — THE  INFLUENCES  BROUGHT  TO  BEAR  UPON  HIM  TO  SE- 
CURE His  RECANTATION — THE  APPEAL  OF  THE  CITIZENS'  ASSOCIA- 
TION THROUGH  MELVILLE  E.  STONE — "THAT  is  THEIR  ANSWER, 
THEY  SHALL  Now  HAVE  MINE" — DR.  AVELING  LISTENS  TO  A  STORY 
WITH  A  MORAL  AND  AN  APPLICATION. 

'0  HAVE  known  Parsons  was  to  love  him.  Some  reminis- 
cences of  his  later  days  may  serve  to  bring  out  more  clearly 
his  sterling  integrity  and  manly  character.  However  much 
others  may  doubt  the  correctness  of  his  views,  none  who  knew  him 
ever  doubted  his  sincere  earnestness  and  truthfulness.  Short  in 
stature,  of  slight  physique  and  nervous  temperament,  even  his 
friends  did  not  realize  the  heroism  which  lay  dormant  in  his  breast. 
But  when  the  occasion  came  to  test  his  courage,  to  prove  what 
manner  of  man  he  was,  he  rose  to  the  height  of  manhood  and  coolly 
laughed  death  in  the  face  rather  than  submit  to  a  cowardly  altern- 
ative. 

After  the  verdict  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  sustaining 
the  sentence  of  death,  1  immediately  returned  from  the  East  to 
Chicago.  At  my  first  interview  with  the  prisoners  Parsons  asked 
me  to  try  and  ascertain  the  exact  status  of  affairs.  He  said  friends 
were  daily  bringing  in  words  of  hope ;  that  he  realized  the  situation, 
and,  knowing  human  nature,  believed  that,  under  similar  circum- 


PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES.  207 

stances,  he  might  do  the  same  thing.  "But  I  want  the  cold  facts ; 
can  you  get  them?" 

I  went  to  a  friend  who  was  in  a  position  to  know,  and  he  got  a 
gentleman  who  had  business  with  Grinnell  to  incidentally  ask  what 
the  chances  were.  Grinnell  answered  that  Fielden  and  Schwab 
would  probably  be  saved,  if  they  signed  what  would  be  required  of 
them.  He  further  said  that  he  had  talked  with  Judge  Gary  upon 
Parsons'  case,  but  that  nothing  could  be  done,  as  Parsons  was  re- 
garded as  too  dangerous  a  man  to  leb  slip  with  a  chance  of  final 
release.  In  fact,  the  impression  given  was  that  Parsons'  boldness 
and  eloquence  had  made  so  deep  an  impression  upon  the  Court  that 
his  death  was  decided  upon.  It  was  an  open  secret  that,  in  pre- 
senting the  case  to  the  jury,  Grinnell  meant  to  have  excepted  Par- 
sons* from  the  extreme  penalty,  but  forgot  it.  Parsons'  eight-hour 
speech  of  defiance,  when  called  up  for  sentence,  banished  the  last 
ray  of  hope. 

We  knew  that,  no  matter  how  many  petitions  were  presented, 
how  many  friends  might  intercede,  the  decision,  as  in  all  such 
cases,  finally  depended  upon  the  signatures  of  the  Judge  and  Pros- 
ecuting Attorney. 

When  I  conveyed  this  information  to  Parsons  his  eyes  glistened 
with  that  strange  light  so  well  known  to  his  associates,  and  he 
replied : 

"Ah  !  that  is  their  answer.    They  shall  now  have  mine." 

Two  days  after  appeared  his  letter  to  Gov.  Oglesby,  contempt- 
uously refusing  "mercy,"  and  demanding  liberty. 

As  the  day  of  execution  drew  near  the  case  of  Parsons  began 
to  assume  a  more  favorable  appearance.  His  voluntary  return,  to 
court  trial  with  his  associates,  and  his  fearless  bearing,  even 
aroused  a  feeling  of  sympathy.  The  Defence  Committee  and  men 
of  influence  beseeched  him  to  sign  the  paper  which  some  of  the 
others  had  consented  to  do.  In  my  last  interview  with  him  he  told 
me  of  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  recant.  He  was  a 
loving  husband  and  a  fond  father.  Probably  no  married  life  had 
ever  been  less  clouded  than  his,  for  perfect  felicity  always  reigned. 


*  The  author  was  told  by  an  attorney  on  the  morning  of  the  rendering  of  the  verdict 
that  Grinnell  had  just  expressed  the  regret  to  him  that  he  had  forgotten  to  mention  to  the 
jury  that,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  Parsons  had  voluntarily  surrendered,  he  ought  to  be  en- 
titled to  some  consideration.  This  proves  what  kind  of  a  "fair"  trial  it  was. 


208  PERSONAL  REMINISCENCES. 

He  told  me  of  promises  made,  and  which  seemed  to  be  based  upon 
good  reasons.  I  assured  him  that  I  believed  that  he  alone  of  the 
five  stood  a  fair  chance  for  commutation.  He  replied  earnestly, 
with  that  nervous  gesture  of  the  index  finger  so  habitual  to  him : 

"But  Fischer  and  Engel  say  they  will  sign  if  I  do  ;  they  leave 
the  decision  to  me.  Will  they  then  die?" 

I  replied  that  for  Lingg,  Fischer,  Engel,  and  Spies  there  was 
absolutely  no  hope ;  nothing  could  save  them.  He  drew  up  his 
slight  form,  and,  with  a  firmness  which  never  after  forsook  him, 
replied : 

"Then  every  night  in  Joliet  upon  retiring,  and  every  morning 
in  arising,  I  should  be  haunted  with  the  thought  that  I  had  made 
cowards  of  them  in  vain.  No ;  I  shall  die  with  them." 

Two  nights  before  his  murder,  when  friends  had  been  denied 
access,  and  even  his  beloved  wife  could  not  see  him,  one  of  the 
bailiffs  came  to  his  cell  and  said  that  Melville  E.  Stone,  editor  of 
the  Daily  News,  desired  to  see  him  in  the  library.  Mr.  Parsons  re- 
fused, saying  that  if  Mr.  Stone  wished  to  see  him  he  must  come  to 
his  cell.  Consequently,  the  great  man  of  the  press  was  ushered  in 
behind  the  bars  and  took  a  seat  before  the  cell  door.  Mr.  Parsons 
still  refused  conversation  unless  his  visitor  should  come  inside  and 
sit  with  him.  Stone  complied.  Then  for  three  hours  Stone,  one  of 
the  principal  members  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  plead  with 
Comrade  Parsons  to  sign  the  retraction  of  his  principles  and  live. 
With  kindness,  with  sarcasm,  with  appeals  to  love  for  wife  and 
children — with  all  the  arts  he  knew  so  well  to  employ — he  beseeched 
him  to  sign,  guaranteeing  life  as  reward.  But  Albert  B.  Parsons 
had  already  made  the  sign  of  obliteration  over  life  and  refused  to 
sacrifice  honor.  At  last,  wearied  with  Stone's  importunities,  he 
arose,  and,  pointing  his  accusing  finger  at  the  great  editor,  said  to 
him :  "You,  Mr.  Stone,  are  responsible  for  my  fate.  No  one  has 
done  more  than  you  to  compass  the  iniquity  under  which  I  stand 
here  awaiting  Friday's  deliverance.  I  courted  trial,  knowing  my 
innocence;  your  venomous  attacks  condemned  us  in  advance.  I 
shall  die  with  less  fear  and  less  regret  than  you  will  feel  in  living, 
for  my  blood  is  upon  your  head.  I  am  through.  Go  !  "  And  the 
interview  ended. 

When  Herr  Liebknecht  and  Dr.  Aveling  were  in  Chicago  they 
called  at  the  County  Jail  to  offer  their  distinguished  sympathy  to 


riiilSuNAL  REMINISCENCES.  209 

the  condemned  men.  When  Aveling  was  introduced  to  Parsons  he 
said:  "Mr.  Parsons,  I  am  sorry  to  see  you  in  there."  Mr.  Par- 
sons smiled  and  said:  "That  reminds  me  of  a  story.  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  was  once  arrested  in  Boston,  for,  as  you  know,  he 
was  a  social  heretic  in  his  day.  While  in  jail  his  friend,  Wendell 
Phillips,  called  upon  him  and  said,  as  you  did,  '  I  am  sorry  to  see 
you  in  there.'  Mr.  Garrison  instantly  retorted:  'Mr.  Phillips,  I 
am  sorry  to  see  you  out  there.' '  Aveling  laughed  arid  answered : 
"Very  good  story,"  but  he  moved  on  to  proffer  sympathy  to 
another.  The  anecdote  seemed  too  pointed  to  permit  of  discus- 
sion, but  Parsons'  hearty  laugh  followed  him  as  he  passed  on. 

And  this  was  the  man  the  infamous  conspiracy  strangled  and 
cowardly  sprang  the  trap  to  choke  off  his  dying  words.  Calm,  un- 
moved, and  fearless,  the  men  whom  so  many  had  tried  to 
humiliate,  to  dishonor,  to  apostatize,  rose  superior  to  their  accusers 
and  stepped  upon  the  scaffold  with  a  smile  of  pity  for  the  hirelings 
who  were  selected  to  perform  their  brutal  task.  And  among  all 
names  now  so  dear  to  working  men,  as  having  been  borne  by  men 
who  died  in  their  cause,  none  will  live  and  shine  with  greater  lustre 
than  that  of  Albert  K.  Parsons. 

DYER  D.  LUM. 


210  ECHOES  FROM  PKISON  CELL. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


ECHOES  FEOM  HIS  PEISON  CELL. 

LETTERS  WRITTEN  FROM  His  DUNGEON — THE  VERDICT  THE  HANDWRIT- 
ING ON  THE  WALL — INCIDENTS  OF  THE  EECONSTRUCTION  PERIOD  IN 
THE  SOUTH — A  CRITICISM  OF  A  SPEECH  BY  MR.  POWDERLY— THE 
POSITION  OF  THE  ANARCHISTS  DEFINED— THE  SHADOW  OF  THE 
SCAFFOLD — CHEERING  LETTERS  AND  TELEGRAMS — PARSONS'  EELIG- 
lous  VIEWS — AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  FINAL  SCENES  COPIED  FROM  THE 
CITY  PRESS — "BRAVE  WHILE  BEING  SHROUDED." 

WITH  this  part  is  contained  many  of  the  letters  and  corre- 
spondence with  ifriends,  which  gives  the  reader  a  clear  in- 
sight into  the  thoughts  and  aspirations  occupying  the  mind 
of  a  man  sentenced  to  death,  with  the  sun  so  far  past  the  meridian 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  for  opinion's  sake,  in  what  had  hitherto 
been  supposed  to  be  the  freest  country  in  the  world — a  country  the 
founders  of  which  freely  spilled  their  blood  on  battle-fields  to  secure 
to  their  descendants  the  right  to  freely  think,  speak,  and  act.  And 
this  in  America  !  beneath  the  folds  of  the  "stars  and  stripes" — that 
flag  beneath  whose  protecting  folds,  when  it  floated  on  foreign 
seas,  by  foreign  shores,  every  slave  fleeing  from  despotism  was  sup- 
posed to  find  shelter !  It  was  for  this  reason — and  for  this  reason 
alone — that  the  star-spangled  banner  was  first  flung  to  the  breeze. 
Yet,  with  this  atrocious  five-fold  murder,  America  stands  to-day  in  the 
vanguard  as  the  most  bloodthirsty  of  all  the  despotisms  of  so-called 
civilized  Governments.  She  attempted  to  do  the  same  thing  that 
despots  have  done  in  the  past  and  have  failed — she  erected  a  scaf- 
fold and  attempted  to  murder  thought. 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  211 

That  in  this  attempt  she  out-stripped  even  Russia  is  shown 
in  a  communication  to  a  Chicago  morning  paper  by  J.  V.  Farwell, 
President  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  of  North- 
America,  and  ten- millionaire,  which  reads  as  follows: 

*  *  *  I  am  proud  of  our  Government.    Its  beauty  and  power  over  all  other 
Governments  is  demonstrated  by  the  conviction  of  these  Anarchist  fiends.*  *  * 
Why,  even  Eussia  is  left  behind,  for  while  she  sends  them  to  Siberian  mines, 
or  to  the  execution  block,  it  is  only  as  individuals.    It  was  left  for  our  glorious 
America  to  teach  them  all  a  lesson  in  how  to  exterminate  this  social  vermin 
by  chopping  off  its  head,  and  thus  kill  the  body  of  the  movement. 

Will  our  children  be  proud  of  "our"  Government  for  this  atroc- 
ity ?  Let  us  rather  hope  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  the  detestation 
of  privilege  shall  have  once  more  asserted  itself  on  American  soil, 
and  that  our  children,  instead  of  being  "proud,  "will  avert  their  faces 
in  shame  when  they  come  to  this  page  in  history,  written  by  the 
blood  of  the  first  martyrs 'who  fell  for  opinion's  sake  in  the  battle 
for  economic  freedom. 

*COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         i 
CHICAGO,  August  20,  1886.  ) 
My  Darling  Wife: 

Our  verdict  this  morning  cheers  the  hearts  of  tyrants  throughout  the 
world,  and  the  result  will  be  celebrated  by  King  Capital  in  its  drunken  feast 
of  flowing  wine  from  Chicago  to  St.  Petersburg.  Nevertheless,  our  doom  to 
death  is  the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  foretelling  the  downfall  of  hate,  malice, 
hypocrisy,  judical  murder,  oppression,  and  the  domination  of  man  over  his 
fellow-man.  The  oppressed  of  earth  are  writhing  in  their  legal  chains.  The 
giant  Labor  is  awakening.  The  masses,  aroused  from  their  stupor,  will  snap 
their  petty  chains  like  reeds  in  the  whirlwind. 

We  are  all  creatures  of  circumstance ;  we  are  what  we  have  been  made 
to  be.  This  truth  is  becoming  clearer  day  by  day. 

There  was  no  evidence  that  any  one  of  the  eight  doomed  men  knew  of,  or 
advised,  or  abetted  the  Haymarket  tragedy.  But  what  does  that  matter?  The 
privileged  class  demands  a  victim,  and  we  are  offered  a  sacrifice  to  appease 
the  hungry  yells  of  an  infuriated  mob  of  millionaires  who  will  be  contented 
with  nothing  less  than  our  lives.  Monopoly  triumphs!  Labor  in  chains  ascends 
the  scaffold  for  having  dared  to  cry  out  for  liberty  and  right ! 

Well,  my  poor,  dear  wife,  I,  personally,  feel  sorry  for  you  and  the  helpless 
little  babes  of  our  loins. 

You  I  bequeath  to  the  people,  a  woman  of  the  people.  I  have  one  request 
to  make  of  you:  Commit  no  rash  act  to  yourself  when  I  am  gone,  but  take  up 
the  great  cause  of  Socialism  where  I  am  compelled  to  lay  it  down. 

*  The  above  letter  was  banded  to  me  by  Mr.  Parsons  in  the  afternoon  of  Angust  20, 1888, 
the  first  time  I  had  seen  him  after  the  verdict  was  rendered.  LUCY  E.  PARSONS. 


212  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

My  children— well,  their  father  had  better  die  in  the  endeavor  to  secure 
their  liberty  and  happiness  than  live  contented  in  a  society  which  condemns 
nine-tenths  of  its  children  to  a  life  of  wage-slavery  and  poverty.  Bless  them  ; 
I  love  them  unspeakably,  my  poor  helpless  little  ones.  - 

Ah,  wife,  living  or  dead,  we  are  as  one.  For  you  my  affection  is  everlasting. 
For  the  people— humanity  I  cry  out  again  and  again  in  the  doomed  victim's 
cell :  Liberty — Justice— Equality. 

ALBERT  R.  PAKSONS. 


COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         j 
CHICAGO,  August  12,  1886.  \ 
My  Dear  Friends  at  Waukesha : 

Receiving  no  reply  to  my  letter  sent  last  Tuesday,  I  write  again.  I  want 
to  hear  from  you  all.  How  are  the  children  ?*  Bless  them.  I  know  they  are 
happy ;  how  else  could  they  be  while  surrounded  by  such  generous,  kind,  and 
honest  people  as  you  all  are  ?  Bless  you.  Ah,  this  Sabbath  day  my  mind 
wanders  back  to  the  happy  hours  and  pleasant  scenes  while  with  you  in  Wau- 
kesha. Do  you  remember  that  bright  and  sunny  Sabbath  morning  of  June 
last,  when  with  songs  and  cheer  we  put  out  for  a  day  at  Pewaukee  Lake  ? 
The  trip — oh,  that  glorious  ride  over  hill,  through  valley,  amid  winding  dell, 
and  across  gurgling  brooks  and  green  fields ;  the  singing  birds,  the  shady 
groves,  the  ai.r  laden  with  nature's  sweet  breath,  the  perfume  of  wild  roses, 
clover,  cherry,  apple,  and  many  beautiful  flowers  in  fragrant  bloom  lining  the 
roadside  all  the  way;  and  our  hearts,  yielding  to  the  pure,  the  noble  influences 
which  nature  inspires,  gave  response  in  merry  laugh  and  JOJTOUS  songs — oh,  that 
blessed  day!  It  is  treasured  in  my  memory  as  a  bright  oasis  on  life's  dreary 
way.  And  I  involuntarily  ask,  shall  we  ever  see  and  feel  them  again?  Perhaps 
not ;  very  likely  not. 

Is  my  life  at  an  end  ?  Am  I  already  buried  and  in  my  tomb  ?  The  law — 
man's  law — has  so  decreed  it.  Nature — or  God's  law — revolts  at  the  verdict. 
Which  ought  to— yea, which  shall — prevail?  I  know  not.  But  this  I  know:  that 
millions  of  nature's  noblest  and  best  have  their  thoughts  to-day  with  myself 
and  loved  comrades  in  prison  and  doomed  to  suffer  unnatural  death.  Do  not 
think  that  I  am  complaining,  or  that  I  am  disheartened,  or  cast  down.  I  am 
not,  we  are  not.  If  we  are  called  upon  to  die  for  Socialism,  for  liberty, 
fraternity,  equality,  for  our  oppressed  and  down-trodden  fellow-men,  we  can 
do  it  calmy,  quietly— yea,  cheerfully.  If  the  sacrifice  is  needed,  then  we  make 
the  offer.  Can  man  do  more  for  his  fellow-men  ? 

We  eat,  sleep,  read,  write,  think  ;  we — all  of  us — are  cheerful,  and  bid  our 
comrades  everywhere  stand  for  the  right  and  falter  not. 

Kiss  the  little  ones  for  papa  and  mamma.    Love  to  all ;  bless  you  all. 

A.  R.  PARSONS. 

*  His  children,  Albert  and  Lulu,  were  at  this  time  stopping  at  Waukesha,  Wisconsin. 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  £13 

COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         » 

CHICAGO,  October  12,  1886.  ) 
My  Dear  Friends  at  Waukeaha  : 

At  the  command  of  those  in  authority  I  and  my  comrades  are  to  be  put  to 
death.  The  power  by  which  they  are  enabled  to  murder  us  is  given  them  by 
law — man's  law — and  is  exercised  in  violation  of  their  own  law.  They  believe 
it  necessary,  in^order  to  perpetuate  their  power  and  law — statute  law — to  vio- 
late both  the  constitution  and  the  statute  law.  Liberty  condemns  all  man- 
made  laws,  all  authority,  all  rulership,  all  coercion  or  force. 

Our  crime — our  only  crime,  our  only  offense — is  that  we  declare,  we  de- 
fend the  right  of  every  human  being  to  life  and  liberty.  We  seek  the  millenium 
of  peace,  of  joy,  of  fraternal  brotherhood.  The  penalty,  or  their  punishment, 
is  to  put  us  to  an  ignominious  death.  Do  we  die  in  vain?  No,  my  friends,  not 
in  vain;  nor  do  we  suffer  in  vain.  We  pay  the  price,  but  those  who  come  after 
us  will  receive  the  reward  of  our  efforts,  viz.:  Liberty.  Already  the  people — 
not  the  rulers,  but  the  people — are  greatly  stirred.  The  day  dawns  ! 

The  Court  was  filled  with  rich  Christians,  Board  of  Trade,  railroad,  real 
estate,  and  other  millionaires. 

In  my  defence  to  the  Court  and  before  the  world,  when  explaining  the 
working  people's  demonstration  against  the  Board  of  Trade  in  Chicago  last 
year,  I  read  from  the  bible  which  you  sent  me  these  words :  When  Christ  "cast 
out  all  them  that  bought  and  sold;"  also  from  Matthew  xxi,  10-14,  and  St.  Luke 
ii,  15-19.  I  quoted  to  the  pulpits  of  Mammon  where  the  pretended  followers 
of  Jesus  cried:  "Execute,  execute  !"  I  called  these  hypocrites'  attention  to  the 
fact  that  we  (the  Anarchists)  desired  to  neither  buy  nor  sell  anything  whatso- 
ever, while  they  (the  capitalists)  bought  and  sold  everthing — life,  liberty, 
honor,  everything.  The  hypocrites  !  If  we  MUST  die,  then  we  CAN. 

Tell  Miss  Annie  that  the  beautiful  flowers  she  sent  me,  which  had  bloomed 
from  the  seed  we  planted  around  the  porch  last  spring,  are  like  the  seeds  of 
liberty  which  we  now  plant ;  they  will  blossom  and  fill  with  joy  the  hearts  of 
our  fellow-men.  I  kissed  the  precious  flowers  again  and  again,  and  watered 
them  with  my  tears.  Yours  for  Truth, 

A.  K.  PARSONS. 


PAKSONS  TO  POWDEELY. 

COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         ) 
CHICAGO,  July  26,  1886.  ) 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Chicago  Times  : 

General  Master  Workman  Powderly,  of  the  Knights  of  Labor,  if  he  is  cor- 
rectlyreported  in  his  speech  delivered  to  workingmen  at  Luzerne,  Pa.,  yester- 
day, where  he  is  credited  with  saying:  "Anarchy  is  destructive  of  civil  liberty, 
and  no  honest  workman  can  afford  to  identify  himself  with  an  organization 
which  has  for  its  object  the  destruction  of  life  and  property" — if  he  uttered 
these  sentiments,  then  I  am  justified  in  denouncing  him  as  a  man  who  bears 
false  witness  against  his  neighbor.  Whether  he  said  it  or  not  is  immaterial, 


214  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

since  it  has  gone  forth  to  the  world,  which  believes  he  did .  What  right  has 
Mr.  Powderly  to  define  the  meaning  of  Anarchy,  unless  he  knows  what  it  is? 
Or,  knowing  what  it  is,  for  him  to  falsify  it  is  both  cowardly  and  despicable. 
In  the  names  of  tens  of  thousands  of  workmen  I  solemnly  protest.  In  the  past 
ten  years  I  have  been  active  as  a  labor  organizer  and  orator.  I  am  a  Knight 
of  Labor.  In  that  time,  from  New  York  in  the  east  to  St.  Louis  and  Kansas 
City  in  the  west  and  from  St.  Paul,  Milwaukee,  and  Detroit  in  the  north  to 
Louisville  and  Baltimore  in  the  south,  I  have  addressed  at  least  500,000  per- 
sons, and  among  all  that  number  in  all  these  years  I  challenge  Mr.  Powderly 
to  find  a  man  who  can  truthfully  say  that  I,  as  a  Socialist  or  Anarchist,  have 
advocated  or  countenanced  "the  destruction  of  life  and  property."  "Whoever 
says  so  lies.  The  foundation  principle  of  Socialism,  or  Anarchy,  is  the  same 
as  the  Knights  of  Labor,  viz  :  "The  abolition  of  the  wage-system"  and  the  sub- 
stitution in  its  stead  of  the  industrial  system  of  universal  co-operation,  mak- 
ing every  capitalist  a  laborer  and  every  laborer  a  capitalist,  ending  forever 
the  conflict  of  classes  and  the  inevitable  antagonisms  of  the  wage -slave  system. 
If  this  be  "destruction  of  life  and  property,"  then  is  Mr.  Powderly  equally 
criminal  with  the  Anarchists  The  assertion  that  we  use  and  advise  the  use  of 
force  is  gratuitous  and  untrue.  But  we  have  declared  that  the  existing  social 
order  is  founded  on  force  and  maintained  by  force,  and  we  have  and  do  still 
predict  a  social  revolt  of  the  wealth-producing  against  this  force  system; 
that  they  will  be  driven  unconsciously  into  open  rebellion  against  olass  rule 
and  class  domination.  This  result  will  flow  from  cause  to  effect  and  not  from 
anything  that  Mr.  Powderly,  myself,  or  any  one  else  may  say  or  do.  The 
more  general  and  intelligent  the  diffusion  of  this  truth  the  less  violent  and 
destructive  will  the  period  of  transition  be.  This  is  Anarchy,  its  teachings, 
which  mean  an  end  forever  to  brute  force ;  the  reign  of  eternal  peace  and 
prospertiy. 

For  saying  these  things  myself  and  comrades  are  now  in  prison  awaiting 
the  pleasure  of  our  executioners.  I  think  it  ill-befits  Mr.  Powderly  in  the  name 
of  labor  to  join  in  the  cry  for  our  blood. 

Whether  we  live  or  whether  we  die,  the  social  revolution  is  inevitable.  The 
boundaries  of  human  freedom  must  be  enlarged  and  widened.  The  seven- 
teenth century  was  a  struggle  for  religious  liberty,  the  eighteenth  for 
political  equality,  and  now  in  the  nineteenth  century  mankind  is  demanding 
economic  or  industrial  freedom.  The  fruition  of  this  struggle  means  the 
social  revolution.  We  see  it  coming.  We  predict  it,  we  hail  it  with  joy  !  Are 
we  criminals  for  that  ?  The  labor  movement  means  the  downfall  of  bosses,  of 
dictators,  and  rulers,  and  a  ruler  or  dictator  is  no  more  to  be  tolerated  in  the 
order  of  the  Knights  of  Labor  than  out  of  it,  and  is  no  more  sufferable  whether 
he  be  a  Powderly  or  a  Gould.  Mr.  Powderly  can  ill-afford  to  malign  his 
fellow-laborers,  and  when  he  does  so  in  the  name  of  labor  his  act  is  doubly 
despicable. 

The  labor  question  is  up  for  consideration  and  adjustment.  To  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  heard  and  know  me  I  say  :  Beware  of  false 
gods  and  false  issues. 

A.  K.  PARSONS. 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  215 

*COOK  COUNTY  JAIL,  DUNGEON  No.  7,         ) 
CHICAGO,  November  7,  1887.  £ 
My  Dear  Friend,  George  Schilling: 

It  is  at  your  request  I  pen  these  lines,  and  I  cheerfully  do  so. 

Concerning  my  early  life,  say  from  1868-72,  there  are  some  things  of  pass- 
ing interest.  Between  the  ages  of  19  and  20  years (1867-b)  I  became  interested 
in  the  question  of  "reconstruction,"  then  agitating  the  Southern  States.  Born 
in  Alabama,  reared  in  Texas,  living  at  that  time  in  "Waco,  and  though  a  strip- 
ling youth,  I  had  served  through  the  rebellion  as  a  soldier,  mainly  in  Gen  W. 
H.  Parsons'  cavalry  brigade.  Gfen.  Longstreet,  a  man  dear  to  "Southern" 
hearts,  made  bold  to  declare  about  this  time  (1868)  his  adherence  to  the  Union 
and  the  terms  of  surrender  as  embodied  in  the  reconstruction  measures.  These 
questions,  involving  the  civil  and  political  enfranchisement  of  the  recently 
emancipated  chattel  slaves,  were  the  all  absorbing  topic  around  the  hearth- 
stone and  upon  the  rostrum. 

It  was  during  the  Congressional  campaign  of  1868  that  an  elaborate  cam- 
paign document,  of  a  statistical  character,  relating  to  the  progress  and  pros- 
perity of  the  two  sections,  "North"  and  "South,"  fell  into  my  hands  From 
this  document  I  learned  the  merits  of  the  free  school  system,  free  labor 
(wage)  system,  etc.,  etc.,  together  with  the  fact  that  all  the  Government 
(which  was  then  the  Eepublican  party)  required  of  the  "South"  was  loyalty 
to  the  Union  and  compliance,  in  good  faith,  with  the  laws  of  the  country.  This 
newly  found  information,  together  with  the  fact  that  I  had  always  been  at 
heart  a  rank  abolitionist,  led  me  to  conscientiously  espouse  the  principles  of 
the  Kepublican  party.  To  resolve  was  to  act.  And,  though  the  step  I  was 
about  to  take  would,  I  knew,  hurl  me  from  the  social  precipice  of  neighbors 
and  friends,  conscience  and  duty,  as  I  saw  it,  made  my  action  imperative.  I 
took  up,  I  espoused  the  cause  of  those  who  were  then  powerless  to  defend 
themselves  or  reward  their  friends.  For  this  I  was  branded  a  Benedict  Arnold 
— a  traitor — by  the  whole  community,  save  here  and  there  a  timorous  white 
Kepublican  and  a  multitude  of  ignorant  but  devoted  blacks.  Young  men,  with 
whom  I  had  played  as  a  boy,  my  old  army  comrades,  with  whom  I  had  slept 
under  the  same  blanket  in  war  campaigns,  cut  me  short.  Some,  with  tears 
streaming  down  their  cheeks  when  we  met,  bemoaned  my  apostasy.  But  there 
was  that  in  me  which  these  things  served  to  fasten  all  the  deeper — my  convic- 
tion and  resolution  to  perform  my  duty,  as  I  understood  it,  fearlessly. 

In  1868  I  began  the  publication  of  a  weekly  newspaper,  called  the  Specta- 
tor. It  advocated,  in  a  most  conciliatory  manner,  the  acceptance  of  the  pro- 
posed "reconstruction  measures"  as  the  basis  of  peace  and  prosperity.  The 


*  It  will  be  observed  that  from  November  6  Mr.  Parsons  dated  his  communications 
from  "Dungeon  No.  7,"  while  the  eighteen  previous  months  they  had  been  dated  from  "Cell 
No.  29."  The  reason  of  this  was  that  the  five  who  refused  absolutely  to  sign  any  document 
asking  Oglesby  (then  Governor)  "clemency,"  claiming  they  had  committed  no  crime  to  ask 
"clemeney"  for,  were  placed  into  dungeons,  while  the  three  who  signed  the  petition  were  left 
in  the  same  cells  they  had  occupied  all  the  time.  On  my  inquiry  of  a  deputy  sheriff  why  this 
distinction  was  made,  he  roughly  told  me :  "It's  because  they  won't  recognize  the  Governor." 

LUCY  E.  PARSONS. 


216  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

paper  was  short-lived,  in  a  community  of  overwhelming  opposition.  The  elec- 
tions were  frequent  of  county  ,city, State, Legislative,  and  Congressional  officers, 
and  here  the  new-born  freemen  were  brought  face  to  face  with  the  enmity  of 
their  former  owners.  Only  those  who  lived  amid  these  scenes  can  understand 
the  bitterness  and  hostility  which  was  provoked  by  the  efforts  of  the  blacks  to 
exercise  their  political  freedom.  Out  of  it  grew  kuklux  klans  and  a  feeling  of 
reprisal  among  the  blacks.  I  soon  found  myself  completely  ostracised  from 
my  former  associates,  and  during  the  political  campaigns  was  not  permitted 
shelter  and  lodging  in  a  white  man's  house  ip  my  travels  over  a  large  extent 
of  territory,  which  sometimes  included  several  counties.  On  horseback,  over 
prairie,  or  through  the  swamps  of  the  Brazos  river,  accompanied  generally  by 
one  or  two  intelligent  colored  men,  we  traveled.  At  noontime  or  nightfall  our 
fare  was  only  such  as  could  be  had  in  the  rude  and  poverty-stricken  huts  of 
the  colored  people.  I  ate  at  their  table  with  them,  and  slept  in  the  same  room, 
as  the  huts  rarely  had  but  one  room.  This  was  a  degree  of  self-degradation 
in  the  eyes  of  the  whites,  which  rendered  me  odious.  Around  or  through  the 
plantations  we  would  give  out  the  time  and  place  where  a  public  meeting  was 
to  be  held  to  discuss  the  issues  of  the  campaign.  And  often  have  I,  amid  the 
rows  of  slave  huts,  at  night,  stood  upon  a  bale  of  cotton  as  a  platform,  and  by 
the  faint  light  of  a  tallow  dip  harrangued  the  hundreds  assembled  around  me. 
What  a  scene!  The  stars  shone  brightly  above;  a  somber,  heavy  darkness 
covered  the  earth's  surface — peculiar  to  Southern  swamp  regions;  the  flicker- 
ing light  of  the  tallow  dip;  the  mass  of  upturned,  eager  faces,  coal  black,  with 
shining  black  eyes  imbedded  in  sparkling  white,  with  uncovered  heads  (but 
few  possessed  hats) .  The  kinky  hair  was  curled  or  tied  around  strips  of  corn- 
shucks  about  the  size  of  a  finger,  the  lint  of  the  gin  or  cotton  field,  in  which 
they  had  worked  all  day,  clung  to  their  worn  and  tattered  garments,  making 
altogether  a  grotesque,  strange,  weird  scene.  Such  was  my.  audience,  such 
their  school  and  teacher  in  the  first  lessons  of  political  economy.  But  on 
great  occasions  the  meetings  were  held  in  the  court-house  at  the  county  seat, 
where  persons  from  all  portions  of  the  county  attended.  On  these  occasions 
the  meeting  had  an  effect  upon  the  whites  similar  to  a  red  rag  in  the  face  of  a 
wild  bull.  Fear  was  often  entertained  that  a  wholesale  massacre  of  blacks 
would  take  place,  but  this  was  offset  by  the  counter  fear  that  the  blacks  might 
in  retaliation  burn  the  town,  etc.  A  garrison  of  United  States  troops  was 
stationed  for  two  or  three  years  during  this  period  at  certain  centers,  Waco 
being  designated  for  this  region.  I  remember  vividly  one  of  these  general 
meetings  held  at  Marlin,  the  county  seat  of  Falls  county,  some  forty-five 
miles  distant  from  Waco.  This  meeting  had  been  arranged  two  weeks  ahead 
to  be  held  on  Saturday  in  the  court-house.  Marlin  contained  a  population  of 
probably  500,  and,  like  most  Southern  towns,  possessed  the  inevitable  public 
square  with  a  court-house  in  the  center.  These  court-houses  were  always 
two  stories  high,  the  upper  floor  generally  being  a  hall  where  the  citizens 
could  assemble  to  the  number  of  a  thousand  on  great  occasions.  The  day 
finally  arrived,  and  from  9  a.  m.  until  2  p.  m.  the  blacks  gathered  from  all  over 
the  county  to  the  meeting.  They  came,  some  of  them  from  long  distances,  on 
horseback,  mules,  in  ox  or  horse  wagons,  and  on  foot.  When,  at  2:30  p.  m., 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  217 

the  meeting  opened,  there  were  about  ),COO  present,  among  them  a  few 
women.  Dressed  in  every  conceivable  garb,  some  with  and  some  without 
shoes,  some  with  "Sunday"  clothes,  others  in  patched  and  tattered  work-day 
garb,  a  few  with  head  wrapped  in  striped  bandanas,  but  most  with  hats.  When 
the  meeting  was  called  to  order  they  removed  their  hats,  disclosing  an  im- 
mense number  with  hair  tied  up  or  curled  round  strips  of  corn-shucks.  The 
hall  was  crowded.  I  was  the  principal  orator — in  fact,  the  only  one — of  the 
day.  My  remarks  were  congratulatory  of  their  awakening  interest  in  their 
own  welfare,  etc.  I  told  them  they  now  no  longer  had  to  call  any  man 
"master";  they  could  work  for  themselves,  and  vote  for  themselves.  I  ex- 
horted them  not  to  bo  intimidated;  that  the  United  States  Government  was 
their  friend  and  protector.  I  told  them  to  be  men.  To 

"  Snatch  Fear'a  cold  hand  from  off  their  palsied  hearts, 
And  send  the  intrepid  shudder  through  their  veins ; 
Arise,  and  front  the  blessed  light  of  Heaven 
With  tyrant-quailing  manhood  in  their  looks." 

During  my  speech  an  occasional  menace  and  threat  came  from  some 
fifteen  or  twenty  white  men  who,  on  the  outer  edge  of  .the  crowd,  hung  to  the 
side  of  the  wall  and  shook  their  fists  at  me  with  muttered  curses,  and  hate 
gleaming  out  of  their  eyes.  But  the  immense  throng  of  blacks,  who  might  be 
goaded  to  madness,  prevented  them  from  doing  anything.  At  the  close  of  this 
meeting  colored  men  gathered  around  me,  thanking  me,  etc.,  and  one  old,  in- 
telligent man,  whose  hair  was  as  white  as  full-blown  cotton  in  the  fields,  fell 
upon  his  knees,  and,  clasping  me  in  his  arms,  with  upturned  face  streaming 
with  tears,  said:  "Bless  God  that  I  should  ever  live  to  see  this  day.  I  never 
thought  a  white  man  could  be  so  good  and  kind  to  us  poor  colored  folks."  I 
rode  out  of  town  that  afternoon  and  stopped  with  old  "Uncle  Monday,"  a  fa- 
mous Baptist  preacher,  80  years  of  age.  I  can  never  forget  the  heartfelt 
hospitality  of  this  simple-hearted,  naturally  intelligent  old  man.  At  such 
meetings  as  these  the  new-born  manhood  was  aroused  and  they  were  stirred 
with  new  sensations  of  independence  and  self-respect.  It  was  a  characteristic 
of  the  blacks  to  be  kind  and  confiding  to  a  degree,  and  I  always  found  them 
obliging  and  true-hearted.  Amid  such  scenes  as  these  I  labored  for  about  two 
years  0870).  The  Republican  party  was  to  them  essentially  a  labor  party, 
since  all  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  community  was  arrayed  against  these 
poor  wage-workers — these  proletariat.  I  engaged  in  this  work  with  the  ardor 
and  disinterestedness  of  an  apostle.  I  knew  nothing  of  politics  in  the  sense 
in  which  that  word  is  now  employed.  In  1870  I  was  appointed  by  President 
Grant  Assistant  United  States  Internal  Revenue  Assessor.  In  the  election  of 
members  of  the  Legislature  a  colored  man  named  Shep  Mullens,  of  Waco,  a 
very  intelligent  blacksmith,  was  successful  over  his  Democratic  competitor. 
One  day  John  T.  Flint,  a  banker,  met  me  in  the  hallway  of  his  building  and 
began  to  upraid  and  denounce  me  for  aiding  the  election  of  a  "nigger."  He 
was  a  powerful  man  of  200  pounds,  my  weight  being  about  135.  I  held  a 
walking-cane  in  my  hand,  and  told  him  to  let  me  alone.  He  stooped  down, 
and,  picking  up  a  five-pound  piece  of  broken  iron  cog-wheel,  used  to  prop 


218  ECHOES  FKOM  PRISON  CELL. 

open  the  door,  made  a  motion  to  throw  it  at  me.  I  told  him  not  to  do  it,  as  it 
would  kill  if  it  struck  me.  Walking  up  to  him,  he  suddenly  drew  back  and 
struck  me  in  the  temple  with  the  iron,  making  a  cut  of  two  inches,  from  which 
rushed  a  stream  of  blood  that  drenched  my  clothing.  He  was  bound  over  to 
keep  the  peace  under  bonds,  but  was  never  prosecuted.  This  was  the  only 
difficulty  I  ever  had  with  any  one.  And,  though  it  was  the  custom  of  many 
to  go  heavily  armed,  I  never  carried  a  weapon — not  even  when  traveling,  of 
which  I  did  a  great  deal.  Shotgun  or  pistol  fracases  were  quite  frequent  oc- 
currences, generally  on  the  public  square,  when  all  but  the  combatants  would 
retire  within  the  stores  and  leave  them  an  open  field.  In  nearly  every  neigh- 
borhood there  was  usually  a  gang  of  desperados,  who,  as  kuklux,  made  life 
a  terror  to  the  defenseless  blacks.  In  some  instances  these  gangs  took  to  the 
highway  and  began  to  depredate  upon  the  whites.  Such  gangs  usually  became 
emboldened  with  their  easy  terrorization  at  first,  until  in  sheer  desperation 
the  peaceably-disposed  portion  of  the  community  would  combine,  and  in  a 
frenzy  kill  them  or  drive  them  off.  Many  Texans  will  remember  the  noted 
outlaw,  Bickerstoff,  who  terrorized  a  vast  region  of  country  till  he  was  finally 
slain  by  merchants  and  people  of  Alvarado,  Johnson  county.  I  have  seen  his 
grave  often  where  he  is  buried  on  the  roadside  in  the  "Cross-timbers,"  near 
that  town.  In  those  days  it  could  be  said  truly 

"  Oh,  that  bread  should  be  so  dear, 
And  flesh  and  blood  so  cheap." 

In  the  year  1870,  E.  J.  Davis,  now  dead,  was  elected  Republican  Governor 
of  Texas.  On  the  organization  of  the  State  Senate  I  was  elected  reading  sec- 
retary. During  this  term  I  was  commissioned  Colonel  of  State  militia  by  the 
Governor.  I  was  not  an  "ornamental"  Colonel,  either.  On  the  occasion  of  an 
election  held  in  1871 1  was  or  jlered  from  Austin  to  Belton,  county  seat  of  Bell 
county,  to  preserve  order  and  protect  the  citizens  at  the  polls  on  election  day. 
I  was  in  command  of  some  twenty-five  men,  and  it  was  a  most  warlike  and 
dangerous  undertaking.  The  blacks  had  no  rights  which  (as  Justice  Taney 
had  said)  the  whites  should  respect.  But  at  the  muzzle  of  revolvers  I  pro- 
tected the  poor  blacks  in  the  exercise  of  their  elective  franchise. 

Thus,  over  a  very  extensive  region  of  country,  among  cotton,  corn,  and 
sugar  plantations,  I  became  somewhat  famous  as  a  champion  of  political 
liberty.  Beloved  by  the  blacks,  I  was  hated  and  scorned  by  the  whites.  I 
then  believed  that  the  colored  people  were  truly  freemen,  and  that  they  only 
needed  courage  to  assert  it.  But  I  did  not  then  understand  or  know  that  eco- 
nomic dependence,  i.  e.,  industrial  servitude,  made  political  liberty  impossible. 
I  did  not  know,  nor  did  the  blacks,  they  had  been  merely  emancipated  from 
chattel  to  wage  servitude.  I  did  not  then  know  that  economic  freedom  must 
be  the  basis  for  political  liberty,  and  that  the  wage-labor  system  created 
classes,  antagonisms,  and  class  servitude. 

And  now,  as  the  helots  of  old,  the  so-called  "free"  blacks,  in  common 
with  their  white  brethren,  work  and  die  like  beasts  in  the  unceasing  treadmill 
of  wage -slavery. 

A.  E.  PARSONS. 


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ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  219 

PEISON  PASTIME. 

Among  the  occupations  of  Mr.  Parsons'  idle  moments  he  made 
two  small  steamers  with  his  pocket-knife,  one  of  which  he  sent  to 
Justus  H.  Schwab,  of  New  York,  to  be  raffled  for.  In  the  box  con- 
taining it  was  a  piece  of  rope  obtained  from  a  deputy  sheriff.  The 
grim  humor  of  the  following  note,  accompanying  the  box,  speaks  for 
itself : 

COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         ) 
CHICAGO,  September  21,  1887. ) 
My  Dear  Comrade: 

With  this  I  express  to  you  the  tug  boat  which  I  cut  and  made  with  my 
pocket  knife  to  while  away  the  lonely  hours  in  my  cell.  Also  I  send  you  a 
hangman's  noose  which  is  emblematic  of  our  capitalistic,  Christian  civilization. 
The  rope  is  official — the  kind  which  it  is  proposed  to  strangle  myself  and  com- 
rades with.  The  knot  was  tied  by  myself,  and  is  the  regulation  style.  I  give 
it  to  you  as  a  memento  of  our  time.  Fraternally, 

ALBERT  K.  PARSONS. 

The  boat  was  put  up  at  raffle,  and,  some  doubts  having  arisen 
whether  such  an  artistic  piece  of  work  could  have  been  made  by 
him  with  only  his  pocket  knife,  a  dispatch  was  wired  him  for  in- 
formation. The  following  answer  was  immediately  returned : 

CHICAGO,  November  3,  1887. 
F.  W.  Sasse: 

It  was  made  in  my  cell  by  myself  to  be  raffled  for  the  benefit  of  my  family, 
but  I  feel  like  presenting  it  to  Comrade  Schwab.  Fraternally, 

ALBERT  E.  PARSONS. 


TELEGEAMS  TO  PAESONS. 

Following  are  copies  of  the  four  dispatches  received  by  Albert 
E.  Parsons  a  short  time  before  his  execution : 

NEW  YORK,  November  10,  1887- 

Dear  Albert:  Another  Gethsemane  to-night.  More  than  a  legion  of  angels 
with  pitying  eyes  survey  the  spectacle  of  man's  inhumanity  to  man.  Millions 
of  hearts  in  Europe  and  America  are  now  thrilling  with  sympathy  for  the  men 
who  died  for  humanity.  I  am  proud  of  your  sublimity,  fortitude,  and  heredi- 
tary heroism.  YOUR  BROTHER. 


*  For  a  detailed  and  faithful  account  of  the  last  sad  hours  of  his  life,  when  the  shadows 
of  the  scaffold  were  thickening  and  casting  their  gloom  upon  the  prison  cell,  read  his  own 
graphic  account  of  his  thoughts  and  feelings  when  on  that  last  night  he  heard  them  erecting 
the  gallows  upon  which  he  was  to  die  in  a  few  fleeting  hours,  in  his  book  on  "Anarchism, " 
which  he  wrote  thirty  days  before  his  judicial  murder.  These,  together  with  a  great  deal 
of  interesting  matter,  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix  of  the  book. 


220  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

•    * 

BOSTON,  MASS.,  November  11,  1887. 

Albert  R.  Parsons,  Cook  County  Jail :  Not  good-by,  but  hail  brothers. 
From  the  gallow's  trap  the  march  will  be  taken  up.  I  will  listen  for  the  beat- 
ing of  the  drum.  JOSEPHINE  TILTON. 

ST.  Louis,  Mo.,  November  11,  1887. 

Albert  R.  Parsons,  Prisoner:  Glorious  martyr,  in  the  name  of  social  pro- 
gress bravely  meet  your  fate.  C.  K.  DAVIS. 

SAN  TKANCISCO,  November  10,  1887. 

Brave  Parsons:  Your  name  will  live  long  after  people  will  ask :  "Who 
was  Oglesby?"  FOTJK  CITIZENS. 

To  the  sender  of  the  first  telegram  Parsons  desired  that  his 
red  silk  handkerchief  be  sent. 


THE  MIRROR  OF  THE  PRESS. 

• 

Up  to  3  o'clock  Parsons  had  not  retired,  but  was  talking  to  his 

guards,  Bailiffs  Hanks  and  Rooney.  At  12 : 30  o'clock  he  sang  in  a 
low  voice  an  Anarchist  song  named  "Marching  to  Liberty,"  to  the 
tune  of  the  "Marseillaise,"  which  he  sarg  at  several  Anarchist  meet- 
ings formerly.  He  also  sang  "Annie  Laurie."  Bailiff  Hanks  sug- 
gested that  he  ought  to  try  and  get  a  little  sleep.  Parsons  answered 
in  a  joking  way: 

"How  can  a  fellow  go  to  sleep  with  the  music  made  by  putting 
up  the  gallows  ?" 


PARSONS'  RELIGIOUS  VIEWS. 

Taken  from  the  Chicago  Tribune  November  4, 1887. 

Albert  R.  Parsons  yesterday  sent  the  following  letter  to  the 

Tribune: 

COOK  COUNTY  BASTILE,  CELL  No.  29,         j 
CHICAGO,  November  3,  1887.  f 
Editor  of  the  Tribune : 

In  your  issue  of  to-day  on  the  "People's  Page,"  and  column  headed 
"  Voice  of  the  People,  "a  correspondent  asks:  "To  settle  a  dispute  please 
state  what  religion  Anarchist  Parsons  has,  or  has  he  any  religion  ?"  To  which 
you  reply  "  No." 

To  settle  a  dispute  concerning  my  religious  belief,  which  will  doubtless 
arise  after  my  judicial  assassination,  when  it  will  be  beyond  my  power  to 
speak,  I  desire  to  say  to  your  inquirer,  and  to  all  others,  that  religion  in  th<> 
sense  now  understood  and  practiced  by  those  who  profess  it  is  merely  a  blind 
faith  of  the  honestly  superstitious,  or  a  cloak  of  designing  knaves. 

If  there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  or  Almighty  God,  who  rules  the  universe,  the 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  221 

sphere  as  well  as  the  actions  of  puny  men,  then  why  do  those  who  profess  al- 
legiance to  Him  cast  aside  and  violate  His  laws  and  impeach  His  integrity  and 
insult  His  beneficency  by  erecting  man-made  governments  and  enacting 
man-made  laws,  and  use  the  bloody  weapons  of  war  to  prop  up  and  maintain 
these  man-made  laws  and  Governments? 

My  religion — if  it  can  be  called  such — is  viz.:  "Who,  so  lives  right  dies 
right ;  there  is  but  one  God — Humanity.  Any  other  kind  of  religion  is  a 
mockery,  a  delusion,  and  a  snare.  Kespectfully, 

A.  R.  PAKSONS. 


AN  UNIQUE  DOCUMENT. 

CHICAGO,  November  ll,  1887,  9:10  a.  m. 
*C.  R.  Matson,  Sheriff  Cook  Co.,  III. 

I  request  you  to  deliver  my  dead  body  to  my  wife,  Lucy  E.  Parsons,  No. 
785  Milwaukee  avenue.  A.  B.  PAKSONS. 


HEADY  FOB  THE  SCAFFOLD.! 

The  deputies  who  were  with  the  four  during  the  half-hour  be- 
fore the  procession  was  formed  were  greatly  impressed  with  their 
courage  and  fortitude. 

After  reading  the  telegram  sent  from  San  Francisco,  and  signed 
"Four  Citizens,"  Parsons  took  a  pencil  from  his  pocket  and  indorsed 
it  on  the  bick,  "A.  E.  Parsons,  November  11,  1887,"  and  handed  it 
to  Bailiff  "William  B.  Bramerd,  saying :  "I  will  make  you  a  present 
of  this  as  a  relic." 

A  short  time  before  the  pinioning  a  deputy  offered  Parsons  a 
glass  of  wine.  He  refused  it  saying :  "No,  thanks.  I  would  pre- 
fer a  cup  of  coffee."  A  pot  of  coffee  and  a  bowl  ot  crackers  were 
procured.  He  drank  the  coffee  and  ate  a  few  of  the  crackers,  after- 
wards thanking  the  deputy  and  exclaiming :  "Now  I  feel  all  right. 
Let's  finish  the  business." 


*  It  will  be  observed  that  Mr.  Parsons  was  compelled  to  sign  an  order  turning  his 
body  over  to  his  -wile.  This  was  unprecedented  in  this  State.  The  reason  for  it  was  this  : 
The  Citizens'  Association  and  other  capitalists  tried  to  persuade  Sheriff  Matson  to  secret  the 
bodies  and  not  turn  them  over  to  the  families  ;  but  he  refused  to  do  it.  lu  order  to  prevent 
them  from  stealing  the  bodies  he,  on  his  own  responsibility,  caused  each  one  to  sign  an  order 
requesting  of  him  to  deliver  their  bodies  to  their  families,  and  these  orders  were  placed  in 
the  hands  of  undertakers,  who  waited  in  che  jail-yard  until  the  murder  was  committed,  with 
these  orders,  to  prevent  the  bodies  from  being  stolen  by  the  gouhls. 

t  This  extract  is  from  one  oi  tho  city  dailies  which  was  most  bitter  in  urging  the 
officials  and  jury  to  *  discharge  their  duty  to  society,'  and,  coming  from  chis  source  could 
hardly  bo  called  a  favorable  prejudiced  account. 


222  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

Shortly  afterward  he  said  to  Brainerd :  "I  am  a  Mason  and 
have  always  tried  to  help  my  fellow-man  all  my  life.  I  am  going 
out  of  the  world  with  a  clear  conscience.  I  die  that  others  may 
live."  He  then  gave  Brainerd  the  Masonic  grip  and  word  to  au- 
thenticate his  statement. 

Dr.  Bolton  was  met  by  personal  kindness,  but  with  religious 
indifference.  Parsons  flattered  the  exhorter  by  listening  to  his 
proffered  grace,  mercy,  and  peace,  but  overturned  the  good  impres- 
sion when  he  answered :  "Preachers  are  all  Pharisees,  and  you 
know  what  Jesus  Christ's  opinion  of  the  Pharisees  was.  He  called 
them  a  generation  of  vipers  and  likened  them  to  whited  sepulchres. 
I  don't  desire  to  have  anything  to  do  with  either." 

When  Dr.  Bolten  said  farewell  Parsons  shook  his  hand  and 
said:  "Thank  you,"  and  added,  "Don't  forget,  though,  I  didn't 
send  for  you."  He  referred  to  his  wife  as  a  "lion-hearted"  woman, 
said  his  children  would  not  feel  his  loss  on  account  of  their  youth, 
and  favored  the  turnkey  with  snatches  from  the  "Marseillaise,"  his 
favorite  song  of  liberty  and  death  to  oppressors.  On  being  asked 
if  he  wished  stimulants  he  answered,  "No."  "I  wish  to  go  off 
sober,"  said  Parsons,  and  perhaps  the  temperance  people  will  be 
disposed  to  drop  a  single  tear  of  sympathy  in  consequence. 

The  moment  his  feet  touched  the  scaffold,  Parsons  seemed  to 
completely  lose  his  identity  and  to  feel  that  his  spirit  was  no  longer 
a  part  of  his  body.  He  stood  like  one  transfigured.  Only  he — the 
one  American — seemed  to  realize  to  the  full  that  he  must  die  in  a 
manner  to  impress,  if  possible,  on  all  future  generations  the 
thought  that  he  was  a  martyr.  No  tragedian  that  has  paced  a 
stage  in  America  ever  made  a  more  marvelous  presentation  of  a 
self-chosen  part,  perfect  in  every  detail.  The  upward  turn  of  his 
eyes,  his  distant,  far-away  look,  and,  above  all  the  attitude  of  ap- 
parent complete  resignation  that  every  fold  of  the  awkward  shroud 
only  served  to  make  more  distinct,  was  by  far  the  most  striking 
feature  of  the  entire  gallow's  picture. 


In  this  part  is  completed  all  the  correspondence  upon  import- 
ant topics,  and  speeches  by  Mr.  Parsons  during  the  last  five  years 
of  his  life.  "No  !"  the  reader  may  say,  "  You  can't  have  given  all. 
Where  are  all  those  awful  articles  that  were  read  at  the  trial,  so- 
called?  Surely,  he  wrote  them." 


ECHOES  FROM  PEISON  CELL.  223 

Let  the  accused  answer : 

"Fellow  Citizens:  As  all  the  world  knows,  I  have  been  con- 
victed and  sentenced  to  die  for  the  crime  of  murder ;  the  most  hein- 
ous offence  that  can  be  committed.  Under  the  forms  of  law,  two 
Courts,  viz. :  the  Criminal  and  Supreme  Courts  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  have  sentenced  me  to  death  as  an  accessory  before  the 
fact,  to  the  murder  of  Officer  Began  on  May  4,  1886.  Neverthe- 
less, I  am  innocent  of  the  crime  charged,  and  to  a  candid  and  un- 
prejudiced world  I  submit  the  proof. 

*  *         *         *******#** 

"The  Supreme  Court  quotes  articles  from  the  Alarm,  the  paper 
edited  by  me,  a  ad  from  my  speeches,  running  back  three  years 
before  the  Haymarket  tragedy  of  May  4,  1886.  Upon  said  articles 
and  speeches  the  Court  affirms  the  sentence  of  death  as  an  acces- 
sory. The  Court  says:  'The  articles  in  the  Alarm  were  most 
of  them  written  by  the  defendant  Parsons,'  and  then  proceeds  to 
quote  these  articles 

"  I  refer  to  the  record  to  prove  that  of  all  the  articles  quoted 
only  one  was  shown  to  have. been  written  by  me.  I,  of  course,  wrote 
a  great  many  articles  for  the  Alarm,  but  the  record  will  show  that 
only  one  of  the  many  quoted  was  written  by  me.  And  this  article 
appeared  in  ihe  Alarm  December  6, 1884,  one  year  and  a  half  before 
the  Haymarket  meeting.* 

*  *         *         ********** 

"Extracts  from  three  speeches. alleged  to  have  been  delivered 
by  me  more  than  one  year  prior  to  May  4,  1886,  are  given ;  two 
of  these  speeches  were  repeated  from  the  memory  of  the  Pinkerton 
detective,  Johnson.  These  are  the  speeches  quoted  by  the  Court  as 
proof  of  my  guilt  as  accessory  to  the  murder  of  Began.  I  am  bold 
to  declare  that  such  a  connection  is  imperceptible  to  the  eye  of  a 
fair  and  unprejudiced  mind. 


"But  the  honorable  body,  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  has 
condemned  me  to  death  for  speeches  I  never  made  and  articles  I 
never  wrote.  In  the  affirmation  of  the  death  sentence  the  Court 


*     The,  article  is  given  iu  full,  and  is  aimply  a  comment  upon  General-in-Chief  U.  S.  A. 
Sheridan's  annual  reports. 


224  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

has  'guessed,'  'surmised,'  and  'presumed'  that  I  said  and  did  'so- 
and-so.'  This  the  record  fully  proves.  *  *  *  *  Now 
I  defy  any  one  to  show  from  the  record  that  I  wrote  more  than  one 
of  the  many  articles  alleged  to  have  been  written  by  me.  Yet  the 
Supreme  Court  says  I  wrote  and  am  responsible  for  all  of  them. 
Again,  concerning  the  alleged  speeches,  they  were  reported  by  the 
Pinkerton  detective,  Johnson,  who,  as  the  record  shows,  was  em- 
ployed by  Lyman  J.  Gage,  Vice-President  of  the  First  National 
Bank,  as  agent  of  the  Citizens'  Association,  composed  of  the  mil- 
lionaire employers  of  Chicago.  I  submit  to  a  candid  world  if  this 
hired  spy  would  not  make  false  reports  to  earn  his  blood  money. 
Thus  it  is  for  speeches  I  did  not  make  and  articles  I  did  not  write 
I  am  sentenced  to  die,  because  the  Court  'assumes'  that  these  ar- 
ticles influenced  some  unknown  and  stiil  unidentified  person  to 

throw  the  bomb  that  killed  Began.  Is  this  law?  Is  this  justice?" 
*  *  *  ********** 

"But,"  will  inquire  the  reader,  "Didn't  he  belong  to  an  armed 
organization  which  had  for  its  objects  the  destruction  of  life  and 
property?" 

Hear  Mr.  Parsons  again  on  this  point : 

The  Court  says : 

" 'Among  them  (meaning  the  people  at  the  Haymarket)  were 
men  who  belonged  to  the  International  Kifles,  an  armed  organiza- 
tion, in  which  he  himself  was  an  officer,  and  in  which  he  had  been 
drilling  in  preparation  for  the  events  then  transpiring.' 

"Now,  I  challenge  the  Supreme  Court,  or  any  other  gentleman, 
to  prove  from  the  record  in  my  trial  that  there  ever  existed  such  an 
organization  as  that  armed  section  of  the  American  Group,  known 
as  the  International  Eifles.  Members  of  the  American  Group  did 
organize  the  International  Rifles,  which  never  met  but  four  or  five 
times,  was  never  armed  with  rifles,  or  any  other  weapons,  and  dis- 
banded nearly  one  year  before  May  4,  1886. 
*********  *  *  *  # 

"I  have  been  tried  ostensibly  for  murder,  but  in  reality  for  An- 
archism. 1  have  been  proven  guilty  of  being  an  Anarchist  and 
condemned  to  die  for  that  reason.  The  State's  Attorney  said  in  his 
statement  before  the  Court  and  jury  in  the  beginning  of  the  trial : 
'THESE  DEFENDANTS  WERE  PICKED  OUT  AND  INDICTED  BY  THE  GRAND  JURY  ; 
THEY  ARE  NO  MORE  GUILTY  THAN  THE  THOUSANDS  WHO  FOLLOW  THEM. 


A.   R.   PARSONS  IN    HIS  CELL  MORNING    NOV.  II,   1887. 

Taken  from  Sketch  in  Daily  Paper  of  November  12,  1887. 


ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL.  225 

THEY  ARE  PICKED  OUT  BECAUSE  THEY  ARE  LEADERS.      CONVICT  THEM  AND' 

OUR  SOCIETY  is  SAFE.'  And  in  their  last  appeal  to  the  jury  the  pros- 
cution  said :  "ANARCHY  is  ON  TRIAL.  HANG  THESE  EIGHT  MEN  AND  SAVE 

OUR  INSTITUTIONS.    THESE  ARE  THE  LEADERS  J   MAKE  EXAMPLES  OF  THEM/ 

This  is  a  matter  of  record. 

"My  ancestors  partook  of  all  the  hardships  incident  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  this  Republic.  They  fought,  bled,  and  some  of  them 
died  that  the  declaration  of  independence  might  live  and  the 
American  flag  might  wave  in  triumph  over  those  who  disclaim  the 
divine  right  of  kings  to  rule.  Shall  that  flag  now,  after  a  century's 
triumph,  trail  in  the  mire  of  oppression,  and  protect  the  perpetra- 
tion of  outrages  and  oppressions  that  would  put  the  older  despot- 
isms of  Europe  to  shame  ? 

"Knowing  myself  innocent  of  crime,  I  came  forward  and  gave 
myself  up  for  trial.  I  felt  it  was  my  duty  to  take  my  chances  with 
the  rest  of  my  comrades.  I  sought  a  fair  and  impartial  trial  before 
a  jury  of  my  peers,  and  knew  that  before  any  fair-minded  jury  I 
could  with  but  little  difficulty  be  cleared.  I  prefered  to  be  tried  and 
take  the  chances  of  an  acquittal  to  being  hunted  as  a  felon.  Have 
I  had  a  fair  trial  ?  *  *  No,  I  am  not  guilty.  I  have 

not  been  proven  guilty.  I  leave  it  to  the  people  to  decide  from  the 
record  itself  as  to  my  guilt  or  innocence.  I  cannot,  therefore,  ac- 
cept a  commutation  to  imprisonment.  I  appeal  not  for  mercy,  but 
for  justice.  As  for  me,  the  utterance  of  Patrick  Henry  is  so  ap- 
propos  that  I  cannot  do  better  than  let  him  speak: 

"  'Is life  so  dear  and  peace  so  sweet  as  to  be  purchased  at  the 
price  of  chains  and  slavery?  Forbid  it,  Almighty  (rod.  I  know 
not  what  course  others  may  pursue,  but  as  for  me,  give  me  liberty, 
or  give  me  death.' 

"ALBERT  R.  PARSONS. 

"CHICAGO,  ILL.,  September  21,  1887. 

"Prison  Cell  No.  29." 
*        *        #         *        **#**##** 

These  are  extracts  taken  from  Mr.  Parsons'  "Appeal  to  the 
People  of  America." 

The  appeal  in  full  can  be  found  in  the  book  he  wrote  himself— 
"Anarchism."  As  also  his  letter  to  Oglesby  regarding  his  case, 
under  date  of  October  13,  1887. 


226  ECHOES  FROM  PRISON  CELL. 

It  has  been  claimed  by  some  that  Oglesby  could  not  do  otherwise 
than  he  did,  as  Mr.  Parsons  refused  to  ask  for  mercy,  but  instead 
demanded  justice  (liberty).  I  will,  in  this  connection,  call  the 
reader's  attention  to  Gen.  Trumbull's  article  upon  this  point  on 
page  152.  And,  also,  ex- State's  Attorney  Mills,  in  an  interview  but 
a  few  days  prior  to  November  11,  stated  that  the  Governor  had 
power  to  do  as  he  pleased  in  the  matter ;  that  the  statute  gave  him 
this  power.  Mr.  Spies  did  sign  a  petition,  but  Oglesby  did  not 
notice  it. 


APPENDIX. 


The  Appendix  has  been  added  in  order  to  include  some  matter 
of  historical  interest  having  a  bearing  upon  the  case  in  a  gen- 
eral way : 

1.  An  article  from  the  able  pen  of  Helen  Wilmans,  as  it  ap- 
peared in  her  paper  at  that  time,  which  will  give  the  reader  a  fair 
understanding  of  the  reign  of  terror  then  prevailing  in  Chicago. 
This  information  is  all  the  more  valuable  from  the  fact  that  it  is 
from  disinterested  parties. 

2.  A  communication  written  by  the  author  to  a  Cleveland 
paper.     [When  the  verdict  of  hate  and  malice  was  rendered,  I  de- 
termined to  go  before  the  American  people  for  the  purpose  of  show- 
ing the  foul  conspiracy  of  the  capitalistic  class  to  send  seven  inno- 
cent men  to  the  scaffold,  one  of  whom  I  loved  dearer  than  life 
itself — my  husband ;  and  I,  of  all  the  world,  knew  he  was  not  guilty 
of  any  crime,  much  less  the  heinous  crime  of  murder.    One  would 
have  supposed  that  a  wife,  on  a  mission  of  this  nature,  would  have 
challenged  the  respect  and  sympathy  of  even  barbarians,  and  pos- 
sibly she  would,  but  Christians,  as  my  sad  experience  showed,  on 
most  occasions  threw  every  obstacle  in  my  way.    Sometimes  the 
hall  was  locked ;  sometimes  policemen  intimidated  the  people  by 
running  cordons  around  the  place  and  gruffly  telling  them :  "There 
is  no  meeting,"  etc. ;  sometimes  the  militia  was  called  out,  as  was 
the  case  in  Orange,  New  Jersey,  and  Columbus,  Ohio.     These  out- 
rages were  always  perpetrated  by  the  "authorities,"  in  the  interest 
of  "law  and  order."] 


230  APPENDIX. 

3.  Affidavit  of  Otis  Favor. 

4.  The  conditions  under  which  our  beloved  comrades  had  to- 
be  taken  to  their  graves,*  and  comments  from  Gen.   Trumbull's 
"Trial  of  the  Judgment"  on  the  same. 

5.  Capt.  Black's  eloquent  address  at  the  grave. 

6.  Gen.  B.  F.  Butler's  letter  to  Capt.  Black. 


THE  STOBY  TOLD  BY  HELEN  WILMANS. 

Taken  from  tlie  Woman's  World,  June  15,  1886. 

ST  THE  time  the  last  number  of  this  paper  appeared  Chicago 
was  under  gag  law,  and  no  soul  dared  open  his  mouth  on 
the  subject  filling  all  hearts,  unless  he  opened  it  to  denounce 
the  four  Anarchists  now  lying  in  prison  here.  I  did  not  choose  to 
denounce  those  Anarchists,  and  so  remained  silent. 

I  shall  remain  silent  no  longer.  One  side  only  of  the  Chicago 
riot  has  been  written,  by  a  hundred  lying  pens.  There  is  another 
side,  which  no  one  has  dared  to  write.  I,  who  speak  in  the  cause 
of  justice  and  mercy,  will  write  it. 

A  deadly  bomb  has  been  thrown.  With  the  abhorrence  of 
bloodshed  which  was  born  with  me,  and  which  strengthens  with  my 
strength,  I  cannot  indorse  the  throwing  of  that  bomb.  I  believe 
that,  in  all  probability,  the  rebellion  of  the  working  people  against 
capitalistic  tyranny  will  reach  the  point  where  bomb-throwing  will 
become  a  matter  of  self-preservation.  The  soul  of  monopolistic 
rule  is  a  hellish  thing,  that  will  never  stop  in  its  encroachments  on 
human  rights  till  the  fury  of  the  masses  calls  a  halt.  It  may  be 
that  the  Knights  of  Labor,  under  the  masterly  guidance  of  Pow- 
derly,  will  evolve  a  quiet  adjustment,  but  I  doubt  it.  And  if  not, 
what  ?  Monopoly  is  steadily  pushing  its  selfish  claims.  The  people 
are  not  going  to  be  murdered  in  smiling  serenity.  The  Knights  of 
Labor  are  not  Socialists.  They  hate  the  Socialistic  ideas  as  much 
as  their  masters.  But  a  little  more  pressure  from  the  upper  strati- 


*  The  committee  who  applied  for  a  "permit"  to  bury  them  were  required  to  sign  an 
agreement  holding  themselves  personally  responsible  for  any  breach  of  the  peace  which  might 
occur,  before  a  permit  was  granted  them  ! 


APPENDIX.  231 

fication  of  society,  and,  without  the  slightest  sympathy  with  So- 
cialistic theories,  they  will  burst  their  environments,  and  Powder- 
ly's  voice  will  be  lost  in  the  din  of  a  thousand  screaming  bombs. 

But  when  that  bomb  bursted  in  the  old  Haymarket  square,  and 
the  gag  law  came  instantly  into  force ;  when  it  at  once  became 
manifest  that  the  great  outside  public  should  hear  only  one  side, 
and  that  side  distorted  from  the  faintest  semblance  of  truth,  there 
was  being  enacted  right  here,  under  the  silent  sanction  of  the  law, 
the  most  brutal  outrages  upon  person  and  property,  and  never  a 
breath  of  it  printed  in  the  daily  papers,  not  one  of  which  dared  to 
write  the  whole  truth.  Indeed,  the  paper  that  could  string  together 
the  vilest  epithets  against  the  four  imprisoned  men  felt  itself  pre- 
eminently ahead  in  public  favor.  Distorted  and  outrageous  pictures, 
purporting  to  be  portraits  of  these  men,  appeared ;  wherever  a  So- 
cialist is  represented  in  print  the  head  of  a  baboon  is  given  him, 
and  in  the  written  description  this  lie  is  still  farther  insisted  upon. 
Mrs.  Parsons  was  represented  in  the  dailies  with  the  face  of  a 
negro  and  the  retreating  forehead  of  a  monkey.  I  am  told  that 
Mrs.  Parsons  is  young,  with  a  handsome,  strong  face,  eyes  that 
emit  electric  gleams,  and  a  tongue  of  thrilling  eloquence.  I  regret 
to  say  that  I  am  not  personally  acquainted  with  any  of  the  Chicago 
Socialists,  but  a  lady  friend  of  mine,  Mrs.  Lizzie  Swank,  who 
knows  the  four  men  now  in  prison  for  the  throwing  of  that  bomb 
which  they  never  threw,  writes  this  in  the  Rock  Islander. 

August  Spies  is  a  remarkably  talented  and  well-informed  young  man, 
attracting  admiration  and  esteem  from  all  who  know  him,  and  gaining  honors, 
even  among  old  journalists,  for  his  literary  ability.  His  pleasant  manners  and 
generous  heart  gains  him  hosts  of  friends,  and  in  his  own  family  he  is  almost 
idolized.  He  is  thoroughly  in  earnest,  and  is  convinced  that  a  revolution  of 
force  will  come,  whether  we  will  or  not,  in  the  natural  evolution  of  society, 
but  would  not  advocate  an  indiscriminate  and  unkindly  use  of  dynamite.  He 
also  spoke  at  the  meeting,  and  stood  at  Mr.  Fielden's  side  when  the  explosion 
occurred. 

Mr.  Schwab  I  only  know  as  a  hard-working  journalist,  who  has  many 
friends  wherever  he  is  known. 

Mr.  Parsons,  who  comes  in  for  his  share  of  abuse,  though  they  have  not 
got  him  behind  the  bars,  is  one  of  the  ablest  orators  of  the  present  day.  He 
is  thoroughly  American,  is  a  faithful  and  kind  husband  and  father,  a  true  friend 
to  the  hosts  who  love  to  call  him  friend,  a  clear  thinker,  and  a  devoted  advo- 
cate of  the  rights  of  man.  Many  of  the  "incendiary"  speeches  attributed  to 
him  he  never  dreamed  of  uttering,  and  he,  like  Fielden,  only  went  to  the  Hay- 


232  APPENDIX. 

market  square  when  sent  for,  and  was  as  ignorant  of  any  trouble  likely  to 
occur  as  a  babe. 

These  men,  at  the  call  of  the  people,  left  their  quiet  homes  to  talk  to  them 
of  their  grievances  and  wrongs.  They  spoke  the  convictions  of  their  hearts, 
and  no  one  grew  boisterous  or  wild  under  their  words.  The  throng  of  3,000 
people  was  a  most  orderly  one;  it  was  about  to  disperse,  under  a  proper  ad- 
journment, when  up  march  200  policemen,  "tightly  grasping  their  clubs,  and 
with  one  hand  on  their  revolvers,"  and  order  them  peremptorily  to  disperse. 

It  was  at  this  moment  some  desperado  threw  the  bomb.  This 
much  has  been  written,  and  the  world  knows  all  about  it.  But  the 
world  does  not  know  what  savage  lawlessness  took  possession  of  the 
police,  and  how  private  dwellings  were  entered,  women  insulted,  and 
young  sons  torn  out  of  their  homes  and  trampled  on  the  pavement. 
The  world  does  not  know  how  homes  were  invaded ;  how  a  man  in 
capitalistic  pay  had  thrown  that  bomb  for  the  express  purpose  of 
murdering  the  eight-hour  movement.  The  killing  of  the  eight-hour 
movement  murders  more  men  than  the  handful  of  city  officers  who 
have  been  buried ;  more  than  the  unknown  number  of  Socialists 
who  were  murdered  then  and  afterwards,  together  with  those  now 
awaiting  murder.  It  kills  by  inches  the  bodies  and  souls  of  thou- 
sands in  the  slow  grind  of  incessant  toil ;  it  pins  back  in  the  old  po- 
sitions the  half-arisen  forms  of  a  million  men,  whose  stiffening 
joints  will  never  again  straighten  in  another  effort  for  comparative 
freedom,  unless  they  straighten  with  the  convulsive  jerk  of  frenzied 
passion  to  fill  this  world  with  deeds  of  horror. 

The  great  question  of  to-day  is,  will  that  man  Powderly  be  able 
to  hold  his  influence  with  the  order  of  which  he  is  the  head  ?  If  he 
does  this  we  may  pass  the  coming  revolution  quietly.  If  he  does 
not  do  it,  then  the  next  ten  years  will  see  this  nation  in  the  dance 
of  death,  with  the  devil  for  fiddler.  And  monopoly  will  be  the  agent 
in  this  business — Monopoly,  the  father  of  Socialism  and  the  foe  of 
human  rights. 
*  *  *  ********** 

Since  writing  the  above  I  find  the  following  in  the  Chicago  Sen- 
tinel. It  is  headed :  "Some  Cold,  Hard  Facts :" 

Unless  you  have  justice  in  your  soul  and  the  love  of  truth  in  your  heart 
do  not  read  what  follows.  We  propose  to  lay  before  our  readers  and  the  whole 
world  some  cold,  hard  facts  in  regard  to  the  recent  riot  in  Chicago.  And  to 
show  that  we  have  no  sympathy  with  lawlessness  we  preface  our  comments 
with  this  six-line  assertion:  "We  never  knowingly  violated  the  law  in  our 


APPENDIX.  283 

whole  life;  as  a  soldier  we  spent  four  years  helping  to  maintain  the  Union,  the 
constitution,  the  law,  and  the  old  red-white-and-blue  Hag — and  the  rest  of 
our  life  is  held  in  readines  for  the  same  cause  at  all  times. 

We  will  say  farther  that  we  are  not  a  Socialist  nor  an  Anarchist. 
Now  for  a  few  plain  words  in  regard  to  the  Chicago  riots.  May  1,  (bear  in 
mind  the  dates)  was  set  for  the  day  inaugurating  the  great  eight-hour  move- 
ment. Some  thirty  or  forty  thousand  employes  in  Chicago  alone  quit  work  in 
order  to  enforce  the  proposed  system.  It  was  an  eventful  day  in  the  cause  of 
labor.  No  threats  were  made;  no  violence  offered.  The  movement  was 
peaceable  and  orderly.  Two  days  after,  Monday,  May  3,  trouble  occurred  at 
the  McCormick  reaper  works  — a  concern  that  has  made  many  millions  of  dol- 
lars out  of  the  products  of  mechanics  and  laborers,  sold  to  farmers.  The  strikers 
assembled  near  the  works,  and  hooted  at  the  men  who  had  taken  their  places 
in  the  works.  There  is  no  evidence  that  any  real  violence  was  offered.  In  fact, 
it  was  simply  a  recurrence  of  the  proceedings  of  previous  days  for  nearly  a 
month.  Any  day  during  the  preceding  three  or  four  weeks  the  same  scenes 
were  enacted. 

But  this  was  two  days  after  the  great  eight-hour  movement  was  inaugu- 
rated. The  opponents  of  the  eight-hour  movement  became  apprehensive  of 
its  success.  It  became  necessary  to  divert  popular  sympathy.  In  order  to  do 
so  A  BLOW  MUST  BE  STRUCK  SOMEWHERE.  Public  opinion  must,  if  possible, 
be  aroused  against  the  new  movement.  What  better  place  to  strike  a  blow  than 
at  the  reaper  works?  At  this  establishment  and  in  that  vicinity  were  hundreds 
of  the  "cheap  labor"  men  who  had  been  imported  to  take  the  place  of  American 
labor.  What  better  subjects  than  these  very  men  to  work  upon?  They  could 
be  easily  excited  to  riot  and  bloodshed. 

The  police  were  called  out.  Away  they  flew  in  the  patrol  wagons  to  Mc- 
Cormick's  reaper  works. 

The  daily  press  reports — as  if  working  in  the  interests  of  the  capitalists 
to  precipitate  a  riot — are  filled  with  reports  of  "a  terrible  mob  and  riot  at 
McCormick's  works.  It  was  necessary  to  call  out  the  police  and  quell  it." 

Till  the  police  appeared  on  the  ground,  however,  there  is  not  a  particle  of 
evidence  to  show  that  a  single  act  of  serious  violence  had  been  committed, 
beyond  merely  hooting  and  yelling  at  the  so-called  "scabs."  No  violence  had 
been  committed,  but  "just  as  the  mob  were  ABOUT  to  break  into  the  works  the 
police  appeared.  AFTER  the  police  appeared  stones  were  hurled  through  the 
windows  of  the  factory." 

Imported  cheap  labor  was  bombarding  the  greedy  employer.  A  "terrible 
hand-to-hand  fight  occurred  between  the  police  and  the  mob,  the  latter  being 
armed  with  revolvers,  clubs,  stones,  bricks,  etc.  They  fought  hand  to  hand; 
the  mob  hurled  stones  and  fired  volley  after  volley  at  close  contact.  The  police 
fired  into  the  air  over  the  heads  of  the  mob." 

So  say  the  reports.  Read  it  in  the  daily  press  telegrams.  Read  it  in  the 
patent  inside  reports — over  a  thousand  of  which  are  sent  out  of  Chicago. 

Now  listen  to  the  results.  Several  rioters  killed,  and  many  wounded. 
Not  a  single  policeman  hurt— beyond  a  slight  scratch  to  one  or  two.  Mirabile 


234  APPENDIX. 

dictu!  The  mob,  who  do  all  the  shooting,  get  killed;  the  police,  who  "fire  into 
the  air,"  escape. 

Then  comes  the  bloodthirsty  circular — a  mild  affair;  a  paper  wad  at  best. 
Tuesday  arrives;  Tuesday  night.  At  Haymarket  square  several  thousand  peo- 
ple assemble  to  listen  to  "speeches  from  men  who  propose  to  discuss  the  strike 
and  the  McCormick  affair." 

If  there  were  any  "incendiary  speeches"  delivered,  what  were  they?  Who 
made  them?  We  have  read  carefully  the  daily  press  reports,  but  we  fail  to 
find  any  thing  actually  said  that  warranted  the  police  in  breaking  up  the 
meeting.  There  are  plenty  of  assertions  that  something  awful  was  said,  but 
that  "something  awful"  has  never  been  printed.  Let  it  be  proven  and  printed, 
so  that  the  world  may  judge  for  itself  what  it  was.  For  two  hours  the  meet- 
ing lasted.  The  crowd  dwindled  from  three  or  four  thousand  to  less  than  a 
thousand  men  and  boys,  idlers,  curiosity  seekers,  and  laborers.  No  riotous 
demonstrations;  no  great  noise;  no  disturbance;  no  effort  to  interfere  with 
property  in  the  vicinity.  The  killing  of  men  at  McCormick's  works  was  dis- 
cussed; it  was  bitterly  denounced.  In  all  this  was  there  anything  unlawful? 
Ten  o'clock  comes;  the  meeting  is  growing  smaller  every  minute;  the  last 
speaker  is  on  the  stand;  the  former  speakers  had  "spoken  their  little  pieces" 
and  departed.  Suddenly  the  police  appeared.  The  meeting  is  ordered  to 
disperse.  A  bombshell,  a  single  one,  is  thrown  into  the  ranks  of  the  police. 
If  the  meeting  is  composed  of  bombshell  throwers,  where  were  they?  What 
became  of  them? 

If  there  was  any  preconcerted  plan  to  clean  out  the  police  with  bombshells, 
why  was  it  not  done?  If  one  bombshell  did  such  terrible  work,  a  dozen  of 
them  would  have  killed  the  entire  force.  The  fact  that  only  one  bombshell 
was  thrown  is  the  very  best  evidence  that  only  one  was  there. 

Now,  then,  what  the  world  should  know  is  this — who  was  responsible  for 
police  interference  with  the  meeting?  Who  threw  the  bombshell?  Let  the 
man  or  men  who  were  responsible  for  ordering  out  the  police  be  condemned 
and  punished.  Let  the  man  who  threw  the  bombshell  be  caught  and  hung. 
Both  were  law-breakers. 

Why  was  bloodshed  precipitated  at  this  particular  time?  Whose  cause 
has  been  best  served  by  the  encounter,  the  opponents  or  the  promoters  in  the 
great  eight-hour  movement?  One  thing  is  certain:  the  moral  effect  of  the 
murderous  bombshell  business  has  been  skillfully  and  persistently  turned  by 
a  hireling  press  against  the  entire  labor  cause  and  the  eight-hour  movement. 
In  conclusion  we  simply  say  that  this  is  a  plain  synopsis  of  the  "riotous  dem- 
onstration" in  Chicago.  We  leave  the  matter  for  the  present  where  it  is  earn- 
estly hoping  and  praying  that  two  things  may  be  developed  by  the  forthcom- 
ing trials  in  the  Courts,  viz.:  Who  ordered  out  the  police,  and  why;  who  threw 
the  bombshell,  and  why . 

Friends,  there  has  been  a  deeply  concerted  and  murderous  con- 
spiracy of  capitalists  for  the  purpose  of  suppressing  the  eight-hour 
movement,  and  Socialism  is  being  used  as  the  scapegoat  of  its 


APPENDIX.  235 

crimes.  It  has  been  impossible  so  far  to  find  the  man  who  threw 
that  bomb.  The  man  who  threw  that  bomb  is  not  wanted.  He 
could  be  found  if  Chicago's  moneyed  men  desired  to  see  him. 

HELEN  WILMANS. 


MRS.  PAKSONS*  AEEEST  IN  COLUMBUS,  OHIO. 

Taken  from  the  Columbus  Sunday  Capital. 

To  the  Editor: 

Believing  that  your  paper  is  published  in  the  interest  of  truth, 
I  ask  for  space  in  its  columns  to  state  briefly  the  facts  relating  to 
my  incarceration  in  the  Columbus  prison.  The  venal  capitalistic 
press  has  heralded  the  information  all  over  the  country  that  I  was 
arrested  for  insulting  the  Mayor  of  Columbus.  I  never  insulted 
the  Mayor.  My  arrest  was  simply  the  carrying  out  of  a  conspiracy 
to  suppress  free  speech.  The  Mayor  is  reported  in  the  press  as 
saying  "he  did  not  propose  to  have  me  preach  Anarchy  in  Colum- 
bus, which  must  inevitably  lead  to  bloodshed,"  and  the  Mayor  said 
"the  meeting  is  declared  off." 

In  this  connection,  at  this  stage,  it  will  be  observed  that  there 
is  no  pretense  that  the  hall  had  been  rented  under  false  pretenses. 
This  evidently  was  an  after-thought.  As  to  my  preaching  "murder 
and  incendiarism"  I  have  this  to  say :  that  since  the  13th  day  of 
last  October  I  have  lectured  in  sixteen  States  of  this  Union,  as  far 
East  as  the  Atlantic  seaboard  and  as  far  West  as  Omaha,  and  from 
Milwaukee  to  Louisville  and  Baltimore  in  the  South,  and  during 
this  time,  in  the  course  of  some  fifty-odd  lectures,  I  have  addressed 
near  onto  200,000  persons,  embracing  people  in  every  walk  of  life, 
yet  in  this  vast  concourse  of  people  there  is  not  one  who  can  truth- 
fully say  that  I  ever  uttered  one  word  that  could  be  construed  into 
inciting  to  the  commission  of  murder  or  that  would  bring  the  tinge 
to  the  cheek  of  the  most  fastidious. 

In  my  lectures  I  have  simply  stated  facts  as  they  exist,  and  it 
will  be  a  sad  day  for  the  American  people  when  they  supinely  wit- 
ness the  dearest  rights  known  to  man  stolen  from  them — rights 
which  the  founders  of  this  Government  said  should  not  be  abridged, 


236  APPENDIX. 

not  even  by  act  of  Congress,  viz. :  the  right  to  peaceably  assemble 
(stolen  from  them  by  the  crafty  use  of  the  word  Anarchy) — for,  the 
precedent  once  established,  the  way  is  easy  to  dump  every  pop- 
ular movement  under  this  head,  and  thus  effectually  stifle  the 
people's  voice. 

But  to  my  subject.  On  Sunday,  March  6,  I  received  a  letter 
stating  that  a  hall  had  been  secured  for  me  to  lecture  at  Columbus, 
Ohio,  and  all  necessary  arrangements  made.  Acting  upon  this  in- 
formation, I  left  Cincinnati  on  Tuesday,  March  8,  for  Columbus, 
arriving  there  at  7  o'clock  p.  m.  Next  day,  in  company  with  two 
friends,  I  walked  around  the  city  seeing  places  of  interest.  So,  re- 
membering I  was  in  the  capital  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  I  expressed  a 
desire  to  my  friends  to  visit  the  halls  of  legislation. 

While  we  were  in  the  Senate  chamber  a  gentleman  entered 
and  informed  us  that  he  had  heard  1  would  not  be  permitted  to 
speak  in  the  hall  rented  for  that  purpose.  At  this  announcement, 
as  might  be  imagined,  we  were  much  surprised.  I  suggested  to  the 
friends  with  me  that  we  go  and  ascertain  if  there  was  any  founda- 
tion for  the  rumor.  So  accordingly  we  went  from  the  State  House 
building  to  the  hall.  The  janitor  stated  that  he  had  arranged  the 
chairs  in  the  hall  and  was  putting  things  in  order,  but  at  noon  he 
had  received  orders  to  permit  no  one  but  members  of  the  State 
militia  in  the  hall  that  evening.  Upon  receiving  this  information 
I  suggested  that  we  call  upon  the  gentleman  from  whom  the  hall 
had  been  rented,  We  repaired  to  his  office.  On  observing  our 
entrance  he  became  quite  angry,  and  stated  that  he  had  rented  the 
hall  to  the  trades  association  and  not  to  Anarchists.  The  gentle- 
man accompanying  us  denied  that  he  had  represented  himself  as 
engaging  it  for  the  trades  association.  I  then  produced  the  receipt 
and  showed  it  to  him,  and  called  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
receipt  read  that  the  hall  had  been  rented  for  March  8  to  "associa- 
tion," and  that  no  specified  association  had  been  mentioned.  He 
said  he  didn't  care,  he  was  not  going  to  have  the  Anarchists  speak- 
ing in  that  hall,  etc. ;  that  we  could  have  the  money  we  had  paid,  but 
he  would  see  to  it  that  we  didn't  get  the  hall.  I  said : 

"Do  you  mean  to  say  after  you  have  rented  me  the  hall  you  are 
going  to  prevent  my  using  it  ?" 

He  said  that  was  just  what  he  meant.    Then  I  said : 

"If  you  understand  Anarchy  to  mean  violence  and  disorder, 


APPENDIX.  237 

you,  sir,  are  the  only  Anarchist  I  know  of  in  Columbus  just  now."" 

We  then  left  his  office  and  went  to  the  Mayor's  office,  one  block 
away.  As  we  left  the  agent  ran  up  stairs  (his  office  was  in  the 
basement)  and  ordered  a  policeman,  who  seemed  to  be  stationed 
there,  to  arrest  the  gentleman,  myself,  and  Mrs.  Lyndall.  The 
policeman  rushed  up  to  the  man  and  slapped  him  on  the  shoulder,  as 
if  to  place  him  under  arrest.  I  said : 

"Don't  arrest  that  man.  He  has  done  nothing.  Besides,  we 
are  on  our  way  to  the  Mayor's  office." 

The  policeman  went  on  with  us,  and  by  this  time  we  had  arrived 
at  the  Mayor's  office ;  Police  Court  had  just  adjourned.  I  was  told 
by  one  of  the  officers  in  the  corridor  to  go  into  the  Mayor's  private 
office;  he  would  be  in  in  a  minute.  Maj.  Cpit,  the  agent  from 
whom  the  hall  had  been  rented,  had  reached  the  Mayor's  office  by 
this  time,  and  had  a  few  moments'  private  talk  with  the  Mayor. 
Then  the  Mayor  and  about  twenty-five  police  and  detectives  crowded 
into  the  room  where  myself  and  Mrs.  Lyndall  were  seated. 

As  soon  as  the  Mayor  entered,  Mrs.  Lyndall  introduced  him  to 
me.  I  could  at  once  see  he  was  much  the  worse  for  drink.  I  was 
calm  as  I  ever  was  in  my  life,  and  ,as  politely  as  I  knew  how  to, 
began  to  address  him  thus : 

"You  are  the  Mayor?  Well,  sir,  I  have  rented  a  hall  in  which 
to  speak  to-night,  but  have  been  told  that  I  will  not  be  permitted  to 
speak  in  it.  Now,  sir,  I  come  to  you,  as  the  highest  peace  officer  in 
this  city,  to  request  you  to  see  to  it  that  order  is  maintained — 
Just  at  this  juncture,  and  before  I  could  finish  my  sentence,  he 
broke  in,  and  with  a  flourish  of  his  hand,  said : 

"I  don't  want  to  hear  anything  from  you.  There  will  be  no 
meeting  in  that  hall  to-night." 

My  answer  to  this  unexpected  rejoinder  was  this,  and  only  this, 
the  venal  press  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding : 

"Sir,  I  come  to  you,  not  as  a  dictator,  but  as  a  servant  of  the 
people, "  but  before  I  could  utter  another  word  he  said  to  the  pack  of 
sleuth-hounds  (detectives)  standing  around  him : 

"Take  her  down." 

I  did  not  know  what  he  meant,  but  it  seems  they  did,  for  one 
weighing  about  200  pounds  and  near  six  feet  tall  jumped  at  and 
seized  me  by  the  arm  and  called  upon  another  one  to  take  me  by 
the  other  arm,  and  as  to  the  way  they  handled  me,  my  arms  bear 


238  APPENDIX. 

their  finger  prints  to  this  day,  and  can  be  seen  by  any  one.  I  have 
shown  them  to  my  friends,  who  were  moved  to  tears  at  the  evidences 
of  their  brutality,  as  shown  by  the  black  spots  on  both  of  my  arms. 
They  jerked  my  shawl  off  my  shoulders  and  threw  it  at  Mrs.  Lyn- 
dall,  and  said  to  her,  "Here,  take  this  !"  This  was  witnessed  by  at 
least  fifty  people  in  the  corridor,  not  one  of  whom  can  truthfully 
say  I  was  using  any  language  unbecoming  a  lady.  At  this  junc- 
ture, the  suddenness  of  the  onslaught  and  the  termination  of  my 
interview  with  the  Mayor  was  so  different  from  what  I  anticipated, 
that  I  think  I  was  more  dazed  than  anything  else.  But  what  I  do 
remember  saying  to  those  two  hulks  who  had  torn  my  shawl  from 
my  shoulders  and  thrown  it  at  Mrs.  Lyndall,  as  above  stated,  that 
they  might  the  better  grip  my  arms  as  in  a  vice,  and  as  they 
dragged  me  down  stairs,  was  this :  "You  scoundrels  !  Does  it  take 
two  of  you  to  carry  one  little  woman  ?" 

By  this  time  I  had  been  hurried  down  stairs  and  the  charge  of 
"'disorderly  conduct"  placed  opposite  my  name.  And  the  reader 
can  well  imagine  that  this  occurred  in  ten  times  less  time  than  it 
takes  to  tell  it.  In  fact,  it  was  all  over  in  three  minutes. 

The  place  I  was  put  in  for  the  first  four  hours  of  my  incarcer- 
ation, I  understand  from  the  Columbus  papers,  is  known  as  the 
"'ranch."  The  "ranch"  I  will  describe.  This  "ranch"  consists  of 
a  long,  narrow  passage-way  (about  four  feet  wide  and  twenty  feet 
long)  upon  which  open  heavy  iron  doors,  leading  from  small,  dark} 
filthy,  ill-smelling,  dungeon-like  cells;  in  fact,  they  are  dungeons. 
Well,  on  my  being  thrust  into  the  narrow  passage-way  above  de- 
scribed, and  the  iron  bolt  clicked  into  its  place,  denoting  that  I  was 
buried  for  the  time  being  from  the  world,  the  sights  I  beheld  and 
what  I  passed  through  for  the  next  twenty-one  hours  can  never  be 
erased  from  my  memory,  though  it  were  possible  for  me  to  live  a 
thousand  years.  I  saw  lying  upon  an  indescribably  filthy  semblance 
of  a  quilt  a  young  woman,  not  particularly  bad  looking  so  far  as 
facial  expression  went.  Then  sitting  about  the  filthy,  hard  stone 
floor  were  four  other  females ;  there  was  no  chair  or  anything  else 
to  sit  upon.  Standing  near  the  barred  window  was  another  rather 
good-looking,  young  woman,  I  should  say  about  20  years  old.  As 
soon  as  the  door  closed  they  all  began  to  ply  me  with  questions 
which  ran  thus : 

"What  are  you  run  in  for  ?" 


APPENDIX.  289 

"Disorderly  conduct,"  I  answered. 

"Is  this  your  first  time?" 

"Yes,"  I  answered. 

"Oh,  well,  it  won't  go  very  hard  with  you  then  if  it  is  the  first 
time." 

"How  hard  do  you  think  it  will  go  with  me  ?"  I  asked. 

"Oh,  if  it's  the  first  time  $5  and  costs,  and  if  you  can  show 
you  never  was  in  before  it  won't  be  that  much." 

"Well,  do  you  think  I  can  get  out  on  bail  to-night?"  I  asked. 

"Yes,  if  you  have  got  about  $10  to  put  up,  and  if  you  ain't  got 
that  much  I  see  you  have  got  a  watch.  Put  that  up.  But  don't 
let'm  around  here  know  that  you've  got  much  money.  If  you  do 
they  will  soak  you." 

The  conversation  ran  on  in  this  strain  for  a  while,  until  I 
obtained  all  the  information  1  wished,  then  I  turned  it  off  by  asking 
them  what  they  got  to  eat  and  when  they  got  it.  The  answer  was : 

"Bread  and  water  and  salt  for  breakfast,  nothing  for  dinner, 
and  bread  and  water  and  salt  for  supper." 

"And  is  that  all  you  have?" 

"Yes,"  they  replied. 

"And  this  is  what  you  have  and  you  are  put  in  here  for  punish- 
ment. Are  you  any  better  off  when  you  go  out  ?" 

They  all  answered  in  chorus : 

"Ha!  we  are  a  sight  worse.  It  only  makes  a  girl  worse  to 
treat  them  like  we  are  treated." 

I  then  began  to  look  into  the  filthy,  dark,  little  dungeons,  and 
was  about  to  enter  one  when  they  cried  out : 

"Don't  go  in  there  !    You'll  get  full  of  bedbugs." 

"Well,  where  do  you  sleep?"  I  asked. 

"Out  here  on  the  floor,"  they  answered. 

"What,  on  this  hard,  stone  floor.  Where  are  your  bed-clothes  ?" 

"We  don't  have  any,"  was  the  reply. 

"What,  do  you  sleep  on  nothing  ?" 

Some  of  them  began  to  wish  the  man  would  come  on  around 
with  the  bread  and  salt,  as  they  were  getting  hungry.  I  noticed, 
while  engaged  in  conversation  with  some,  that  others  were  going  to 
the  door  and  talking  through  a  little  hole  not  much  larger  than  a 
silver  dollar,  using  the  vilest  language  I  had  ever  heard  escape 
from  the  lips  of  human  beings.  About  this  time  a  man  came  to 


240  APPENDIX. 

the  door  and  opened  it,  and  asked  if  we  were  hungry.  I  asked  the 
girls  if  they  would  like  a  sandwich.  They  thanked  me,  and  I  sent 
out  for  seven — the  number  present — six  besides  myself.  After- 
wards a  guard  came  to  the  door  and  I  asked  him  if  there  was  not 
some  way  for  me  to  get  out,  as  I  didn't  want  to  stay  in  that  place 
all  night.  He  said  he  thought  so.  1  asked  him  how  much  would 
be  required.  He  said  $10  was  what  was  usually  required,  and  if  I 
had  that  amount  and  would  leave  it  with  the  desk  officer  he  thought 
I  could  get  out.  I  told  him  I  not  only  had  $10,  but  a  $50  watch 
also,  and  to  go  and  tell  the  parties  in  control  I  would  leave  both.  I 
never  saw  him  after.  I  had  now  been  in  this  den  (which  must  be 
seen  to  be  appreciated)  about  three  hours.  During  all  this  time  it 
seemed  that  all  the  vile,  base,  low  men  in  Columbus  had  been 
admitted,  and  peeked  in  and  carried  on  with  the  creatures  in  that 
den — soldiers  from  the  Barracks  included — and  the  language  they 
used  must  be  heard  to  be  believed.  About  10  o'clock  p.  m.,  a  guard 
came  to  the  door  and  ordered  me  to  take  my  things  and  follow  him. 
My  "things"  consisted  of  my  shawl  which  had  been  snatched  from 
me  in  the  afternoon,  and  which  Mrs.  Lyndall  had  returned  to  me  at 
my  request.  I  was  conducted  into  a  narrow  cell,  or  rather  dungeon, 
about  five  feet  long  and  four  feet  wide.  In  this  insufferably  hot  hole 
I  was  kept  locked  until  4  o'clock  next  day, without  one  thing  to  sleep 
on  except  some  oaken  slats  which  were  held  together  by  iron  bolts 
and  suspended  by  iron  chains.  Mrs.  Lyndall,  when  she  called  the 
next  morning,  asked  the  guard  why  I  was  not  permitted  to  come  out 
in  the  passage  way  and  exercise  and  have  fresh  air.  The  reply  was 
that  orders  had  been  given  that  I  was  to  be  kept  locked  in.  None 
of  my  friends  were  permitted  to  see  me  all  the  time  I  was  incarce- 
rated, although  some  thirty  or  forty  called — none  but  Mrs.  Lyndall, 
who  was  permitted  to  bring  my  meals.  But  every  loafing  detective 
and  ward  bummer  in  the  city,  every  disreputable  male  brute  who 
wished  to  come  and  lean  against  the  iron  grating  of  the  dark,  hot, 
little  sweat  box  I  was  locked  in  could  do  so.  Whenever  a  gang  of 
these  put  in  an  appearance — gangs  numbering  never  less  than  three 
up  to  ten — the  door  leading  into  at  the  passage-way  containing  the 
dungeon  in  which  I  was  confined — the  great  bolt  in  the  outer  door 
flew  back  and  they  walked  in  and  would  leer  at  me  as  though  I  were 
a  wild  beast  belonging  to  a  menagerie.  And  they  would  laugh  at 
me  and  asked  "how  much  I  liked  it ;"  how  was  my  "health."  Now 


APPENDIX.  241 

this  did  not  happen  once,  twice,  thrice,  but  there  was  a  continuous 
throng  all  the  time  I  was  there.  Next  day  following  the  one  on 
which  I  was  incarcerated,  I  was  brought  into  Court,  und  here  I 
found,  in  the  same  individual,  complainant,  prosecuting  attorney, ' 
chief  witness  all  occupying  the  judicial  bench  to  mete  out  "impar- 
tial" justice  to  me.  This  was  no  less  a  personage  than  his  Honor, 
Mayor  Walcott,  of  Columbus,  and  the  kind  of  "justice"  I  received 
from  him  was  ordered  sent  to  jail  without  a  hearing,  on  $300  bonds, 
the  charge  being  simply  that  of  "disorderly  conduct,"  which  was  a 
trumped-up  charge  to  get  me  behind  the  bars,  and  thus  preclude 
the  possibility  of  my  speaking  in  Columbus  that  night — in  other 
words  a  foul  conspiracy  to  crush  free  speech.  But  suppose  the 
charge  of  "disorderly  conduct"  was  true?  This  very  Mayor  dis- 
misses from  his  Court  every  day  in  the  week  the  worst  characters  on 
a  small  fine. 

I  remained  in  jail  all  night,  was  well  treated  by  the  Sheriff, 
with  the  exception  that  he  had  a  good  many  "friends"  whom  he, 
too,  brought  up  to  see  me.  My  attorneys  sued  out  a  writ  of  habeas 
corpus  and  brought  me  before  a  Judge  who  refused  to  grant  it,  but 
who  reduced  my  bail  from  $300  to  $100,  to  stand  trial  the  middle 
of  April  on  a  charge  of  "disorderly  conduct." 

I  know  my  communication  is  rather  lengthy,  but  it  is  as  brief 
as  I  could  possibly  make  it  and  give  the  bare,  plain  facts  in  this 
remarkable  case  of  "impartial  justice."  Let  the  people  of  America 
read  and  ponder — those  of  them  who  believe  the  laws  are  adminis- 
tered alike  for  rich  and  poor — and  in  reading  I  hope  they  will  lose 
sight  of  me  and  see  the  simple  fact  that  it  is  not  I  who  am  on  trial, 
but  free  speech — and  ask  themselves  where  are  their  boasted  liberties 
drifting  when  a  petty  tyrant  of  a  Mayor  can,  with  impunity, 
"declare  a  meeting  off"  and  lock  the  speaker  up  on  a  trumped-up 
charge.  As  to  the  vile  libel  about  my  using  "obscene  language,"  the 
thousands  of  my  friends  who  know  me  in  this  and  other  cities,  can 
bear  witness  that  no  language  is  ever  used  by  me  unbecoming  a 
lady.  ,  LUCY  E.  PARSONS. 

CHICAGO,  ILL.,  March,  1887. 

Mr.  Parsons  sent  the  following  telegram  to  Lucy  E.  Parsons, 
Columbus,  Ohio :  "The  poor  have  no  rights  which  the  rich  are  bound 
to  respect."  Mr.  Parsons  does  strike  the  truth  obliquely — Editorial 
Columbus  Sunday  Capital. 


242  APPENDIX. 

THE  AFFIDAVIT  OF  OTIS  FAVOR. 

Here  is  the  affidavit  of  Otis  Favor,  as  it  was  presented  to  the 
Governor  on  the  9th  day  of  November,  1887.  It  remains  uncontra- 
dicted : 

STATE    OF    ILLINOIS,  j 
COUNTY  OF  COOK.        <j  *8' 

Otis  S.  Favor,  being  duly  sworn  on  oath,  says  that  he  is  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  and  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  residing  in  Chicago,  and  a  merchant 
doing  business  at  Nos.  6  and  8  "Wabash  avenue,  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  in  said 
county.  That  he  is  very  well  acquainted  with  Henry  L.  Kyce,  of  Cook  county, 
Illinois,  who  acted  as  a  special  bailiff  in  summoning  jurors  in  the  case  of  The 
People,  etc.,va.  Spies  et  al.,  indictment  for  murder,  tried  in  the  Criminal  Court 
of  Cook  county  in  the  summer  of  1886.  That  affiant  was  himself  summoned 
by  said  Ryce  for  a  juror  in  said  case,  but  was  challenged  and  excused  there- 
in because  of  his  prejudice.  That  on  several  occasions  in  conversation 
between  affiant  and  said  Kyce  touching  the  summoning  of  the  jurors  by  said 
Ryce,  and  while  said  Eyce  was  so  acting  as  special  bailiff  as  aforesaid,  said 
Hyce  said  to  this  affiant  and  to  other  persons  in  affiant's  presence,  in  substance 
and  effect  as  follows,  to-wit:  "I,"  (meaning,  said  Kyce)  "am  managing  this 
case"  (meaning  the  case  against  Spies  et  al.),  "and  know  what  I  am  about. 
Those  fellows"  (meaning  the  defendants,  Spies,  et  al.),  "are  going  to  be 
hanged  as  certain  as  death.  I  am  calling  such  men  as  the  defendants  will 
have  to  challenge  peremptorily  and  waste  their  time  and  challenges.  Then 
they  will  have  to  take  such  men  as  the  prosecution  wants."  That  affiant  has 
been  very  reluctant  to  make  any  affidavit  in  this  case,  having  no  sympathy 
with  Anarchy  nor  relationship  to  nor  personal  interest  in  the  defendants  or  any 
•of  them,  and  not  being  a  Socialist,  Communist  or  Anarchist;  but  affiant  has 
an  interest  as  a  citizen  in  the  due  administration  of  the  law,  and  that  no 
injustice  should  be  done  under  judicial  procedure,  and  believes  that  jurors 
should  not  be  selected  with  reference  to  their  known  views  or  prejudice. 
Affiant  further  says  that  his  personal  relations  with  said  Kyce  were  at  said 
time,  and  for  many  years  theretofore  had  been  most  friendly  and  even  intimate, 
and  that  affiant  is  not  prompted  by  any  ill  will  toward  any  one  in  making  this 
affidavit,  but  solely  by  a  sense  of  duty  and  a  conviction  of  what  is  due  to 
justice. 

Affiant  further  says  that  about  the  beginning  of  October,  1886,  when  the 
motion  for  a  new  trial  was  being  argued  in  said  case  before  Judge  Gary,  and 
when,  as  he  was  informed,  application  was  made  before  Judge  Gary  for  leave 
to  examine  affiant  in  open  Court  touching  the  matters  above  stated,  this  affiant 
went  upon  request  from  State's  Attorney  Grinnell  to  his  office  during  the  noon 
recess  of  the  Court,  and  there  held  an  interview  with  said  Grinnell,  Mr.  Ing- 
ham,  and  said  Kyce,  in  the  presence  of  several  other  persons,  including  some 
police  officers,  where  affiant  repeated  substantially  the  matters  above  stated, 
.and  the  said  Ryce  did  not  deny  affiant's  statements,  and  affiant  said  he  would 


APPENDIX.  243 

have  to  testify  thereto  if  summoned  as  a  witness,  but  had  refused  to  make  an 
affidavit  thereto,  and  affiant  was  then  and  there  asked  and  urged  to  persist  in 
his  refusal  and  to  make  no  affidavit.  And  further  affiant  saith  not. 

OTIS  S.  FAVOB. 
Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  7th  day  of  November,  A.  D.,  1887. 

JULIUS  STERN, 
Notary  Public  in  and  for  said  County. 

The  significance  of  the  above  statement  lies  in  the  latter  part 
of  it, where,  after  giving  his  reasons  for  declining  to  appear  in  Court 
during  the  argument  of  the  motion  for  a  new  trial,  and  his  reasons 
for  refusing  to  make  an  affidavit  at  that  time,  Mr.  Favor  says  that 
he  went  to  Mr.  Grinnell's  office  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  and 
was  "  asked  and  urged  to  persist  in  his  refusal,  and  to  make  no 
affidavit."  This,  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Grinnell,  Mr.  Ingham,  his 
assistant  in  the  prosecution,  and  Mr.  Eyce,  the  bailiff  who  sum- 
moned the  jury.  This  is  evidence  that  the  State's  Attorney 
adopted  and  indorsed  the  illegal  action  of  the  bailiff.  It  is  evid- 
ence that  the  Prosecuting  Attorneys  were  accessories  after  the  fact 
to  the  suspicious  making  of  the  jury ;  and  it  raises  a  presump- 
tion that  they  were  accessories  before  the  fact  also.  On  weaker 
testimony  men  were  hanged  as  accessories  to  the  throwing  of  the 
bomb. 


THE  LOED  LIEUTENANT  AND  THE  MAYOE. 

A  comic  twinship  was  that  of  the  Governor  and  the  Mayor 
making  anti-coercion  speeches  at  Battery  "  D  "  last  May.  Moved 
by  counterfeit  anger,  they  condemned  force  as  an  agent  of  Govern- 
ment— in  Ireland — but  not  in  Illinois.  With  deep  mock  feeling  the 
Mayor  exclaimed :  "  Force  cannot  endure  against  the  liberty -loving 
instincts  of  an  earnest  and  united  people."  In  theatrical  recitation 
he  condemned  what  he  called  the  "  atrocious  bill  "  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  "la  wand  order  "  in  Ireland.  He  did  not  know  it  at  the 
time,  but  his  denunciations  fell  more  justly  and  more  heavily  upon 
himself  than  upon  Lord  Salisbury.  He  condemned  himself  as 
follows : 

The  act  gives  the  Lord  Lieutenant  authority  to  proclaim  any  district  and 
suppress  any  association  which  he  thinks  disloyal  to  the  Government,  and  to 


244  APPENDIX. 

direct  all  in  such  district  to  be  searched,  and  thus  effect  a  general  disarma- 
ment of  the  Irish  people.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  bill  provides  for  a  special  jury, 
which,  in  this  case,  may  mean  one  packed  for  the  Government. 

In  the  practice  of  coercion  there  is  little  difference  between  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland  and  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Chicago,  as 
the  following  arbitrary  order  will  show : 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS,  November  12,  1887. 
Frederick  Eberaold,  Superintendent  of  Police: 

You  will  issue  a  permit  worded  as  follows  to  the  committee  whose  applica- 
tion is  enclosed : 

"Permission  is  hereby  granted  to  the  families  and  friends  of  August  Spies, 
A.  K.  Parsons,  Adolph  Fischer,  George  Engel,  and  Louis  Lingg  to  conduct  a, 
funeral  Sunday,  November  13,  between  the  hours  of  12  and  2  o'clock,  p.  m.,  on 
the  following  conditions: 

"The  bodies  are  to  be  taken  from  the  respective  homes  directly  to  the  place 
of  burial,  the  families  and  friends  of  deceased  forming  a  line  on  Milwaukee 
avenue,  commencing  near  Bryson  street,  and  the  procession  moving  on  Mil- 
waukee avenue  to  Desplaines  street,  Desplaines  to  Lake  street,  Lake  to  Fifth 
avenue,  and  Fifth  avenue  to  the  depot  of  the  Wisconsin  Central  Eailway  com- 
pany at  Polk  street. 

"The  carrying  or  displaying  of  banners  is  prohibited;  no  speeches  are  to  be 
made,  and  no  concealed  weapons  or  arms  shall  be  carried  in  the  procession; 
nor  shall  any  demonstration  of  a  public  character  be  made  except  to  conduct 
the  funeral  in  a  quiet  and  orderly  manner.  The  music,  if  any,  to  be  dirges 
only. 

"This  permit  is  issued  subject  to  the  statute  laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois 
and  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  the  procession  will  be 
at  all  times  subject  to  police  regulations. 

"JOHN  A.  ROCHE,  Mayor." 

It  might  be  difficult  to  prove  that  this  harsh  proclamation  was 
in  accordance  with  the  statute  law  of  Illinois  and  the  laws  and 
ordinances  of  Chicago ;  but  if  it  was,  the  fact  would  only  show  that 
the  proposed  coercion  law  for  Ireland,  which  the  Mayor  so  dramatic- 
ally stigmatized  in  May,  was  at  that  very  time  the  law  of  the  State 
of  Illinois  and  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  Mayor  "  proclaimed  "  cer- 
tain streets  of  the  city,  and  he  forbade  the  carrying  of  banners.  He 
"  disarmed  "  the  people  and  prohibited  speeches.  Like  a  French 
emperor  he  proscribed  certain  hymns  and  songs,  which  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  of  Ireland  would  hardly  dare  to  do.  The  Mayor  of 
Chicago  pretended  to  be  sensitive  that  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ire- 
land should  be  empowered  to  suppress  associations  which  he  thought 
were  disloyal  to  the  Government,  and  to  direct  searches  to  be  made 


APPENDIX.  245 

V 

in  the  proclaimed  districts.  Has  not  the  Mayor  of  Chicago  done 
those  very  same  things  ?  Has  he  not  suppressed  associations  ?  And 
has  he  not,  through  his  police,  searched  houses  without  any  lawful 
warrant  whatever?  As  for  the  "special  jury"  wickedness,  what 
sort  of  a  jury  did  the  Anarchists  have  ?  Was  not  that  a  special 
jury?  And  was  it  not  packed  for  the  Government?  The  Mayor 
showed  a  great  deal  of  stage  grief  over  the  "rack-renting  "  in  Ire- 
land, forgetting  that  there  is  more  rack-renting  done  in  Chicago  in 
six  months  than  is  done  in  Ireland  in  six  years.  Such  leases  as 
are  every  day  enforced  by  scores  in  Illinois,  the  British  Government 
would  not  allow  to  be  enforced  in  Ireland.  There  are  more  "  rack- 
renting  "  evictions  every  year  in  Illinois,  yes,  more  of  them  in  the 
single  mayoralty  of  Chicago,  than  in  the  whole  kingdom  of  Ireland, 
for  the  same  period  of  time. 


CAPT.  BLACK'S  EULOGY  AT  THE  TOMB. 

Capt.  Black  ascended  the  platform  where  the  mourning  women 
stood.  He  motioned  for  silence,  and  said : 

"If  you  W-ll  all  be  as  quiet  as  possible  many  of  you  may  be  able 
to  hear  what  may  be  said,  although  to  make  oneself  heard  by  all 
this  multitude,  who  have  come  hither  to-day,  the  common  people, 
to  pay  their  tribute  of  love  and  affection,  would  be  an  impossibility. 
Let  us  keep  silence  while  we  are  here  together. 

"Many  loved  truth  and  lavished  life's  best  oil 

Amid  the  dust  of  books  to  find  her, 
Content  at  last  for  guerdon  of  their  toil 

With  the  cast  mantle  she  has  left  behind  her, 
Many  in  sad  faith  sought  her, 
Many  with  crossed  hands  sighed  for  her, 
But  these,  our  brothers,  fought  for  her, 
At  life's  dear  peril  wrought  for  her, 

So  loved  her  that  they  died  for  her. 
Tasting  the  raptured  sweetness 
Of  her  divine  completeness, 
Their  higher  instincts  knew, 
Those  love  her  best  who  to  themselves  are  true, 
And  what  they  dared  to  dream  of,  dared  to  do. 


246  APPENDIX. 

They  followed  her  and  found  her. 

Where  all  may  hope  to  find, 
Not  in  the  ashes  of  the  burnt-out  mind, 
But  beautiful  with  danger's  sweetness  round  her, 
Where  faith  made  whole  with  deed, 

Breathes  its  awakening  breath 
Into  the  lifeless  creed. 
They  saw  her  plumed  and  mailed, 
With  sweet,  stern  face  unveiled, 

And  all  repaying  eyes  looked  proud  on  them  in  death. 

"And what  is  truth  ?  Not  statements  of  lifeless  dogma,  not  words 
here  and  there  spoken,  that  echo  through  the  corridors  of  time,  but 
the  life-consecrated  loyally  to  the  conviction  of  duty,  to  the  service 
of  that  which  is  apprehended  as  the  highest,  and  noblest,  and  best ; 
a  life  that  is  thrown  into  the  service  of  humanity  and  not  withheld 
even  unto  death — this  is  truth.  Through  eighteen  centuries  there 
has  come  down  to  us  the  answer  of  that  lowly  but  glorious  one  of 
Nazareth,  to  the  question :  What  is  truth?  in  the  words,  I  am  the 
truth. 

"No  man  knows  the  truth  until  it  has  entered  into  his  being,  un- 
til it  has  taken  possession  of  him,  until  it  has  become  the  inspira- 
tion of  his  life  and  his  crown  in  death.  And  these  men,  even  their 
enemies  being  judges,  have  kept  loyal  to  the  conviction  that  entered 
into  their  lives  and  became  the  best  part  of  themselves. 

"Whatever  their  mistakes  of  judgment,  their  hearts  were  wrapped 
up  in  the  cause  of  the  common  people,  with  that  sublime  infatua- 
tion of  self-sacrifice  which  is  the  one  thing  that  lifts  our  humanity 
up  to  heights  where  sits  the  Eternal  Good. 

"I  am  not  here  this  afternoon,  dear  friends,  to  speak  to  you  any 
special  word  concerning  the  cause  for  which  these  men  lived,  nor 
concerning  the  manner  of  their  taking  off ;  but  to  speak  to  you  rather 
of  themselves,  to  tell  you  their  love  for  the  cause  which  commanded 
their  services,  was  sealed  at  last  by  their  lives,  not  grudgingly, 
but  given  with  unstinted  measure  for  the  sake  of  those  they  loved. 
You  know,  many  of  you,  who  have  read  the  press,  how  grandly  they 
passed  out  of  this  life  that  is  seen  into  the  perfect  and  glorious  life 
that  is  beyond  the  reach  of  mis  judgment,  c  f  resentment,  or  of  pain. 
"As  the  years  go  by,  of  whose  record  the  story  of  their  services  will 
form  a  splendid  part,  they  will  come  to  be  better  known,  to  be  loved, 
to  be  revered.  I  am  not  here  to  talk  of  their  violent  end  as  of  an 


APPENDIX.  247 

ignominious  death.  We  are  not  beside  the  caskets  of  felons  con- 
signed to  an  inglorious  tomb.  We  are  here  by  the  bodies  of  men 
who  were  sublime  in  their  self-sacrifice,  and  for  whom  the  gibbet 
assumed  the  glory  of  a  cross.  They  moved  to  their  appointed  death 
slow-paced  and  strong — no  faltering,  no  trembling,  no  turning  back. 
Upon  the  morning  of  that  fateful  day,  when  August  Spies  stood 
already  within  the  shadow  of  his  doom,  he  said  to  one  near  him, 
holding  up  his  hand  in  witness  of  the  fact : 

"This  hand  is  as  steady  as  when,  in  the  old  days, 
It  plucked  the  already  ripe  fruit  from  life's  tree  ; 
The  apple  that  weighted  the  bough  in  the  gold  days 
When  blazed  the  great  sun  of  promise  for  me. 
Yes,  perfectly  steady,  with  no  trace  of  trembling, 
Though  all  is  near  ready  to  meet  my  death  here  ! 
Pray  observe  !  There  is  nothing  remotely  resembling 
The  outward  expression  of  commonplace  fear. 

"To  such  men  death  had,  and  could  have,  no  terrors,  and  their 
execution,  which  was  self-immolation,  could  have  no  touch  of  shame. 
Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  these  dead,  it  will  not  be  denied  that 
they  were  loyal  and  true  to  the  convictions  which  had  taken  captive, 
years  ago,  their  hearts,  and  to  what  they  believed  to  be  the  welfare 
of  the  people,  whom  they  loved. 

"I  must  not  keep  you  long,  and  yet  there  is  one  thing  that  I 
specially  want  to  say,  because  doubtless  in  this  great  throng  there 
stand  many  who  misapprehended  their  position  and  their  views. 
They  were  called  Anarchists.  They  were  painted  and  presented  to 
the  world  as  men  loving  violence,  riot,  and  bloodshed  for  their  own 
sake ;  as  men  full  of  an  unextinguishable  and  causeless  hatred 
against  existing  order.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth. 
They  were  men  who  loved  peace,  men  of  gentle  instincts,  men  of 
gracious  tenderness  of  heart,  loved  by  those  who  knew  them, 
trusted  by  those  who  came  to  understand  the  loyalty  and  purity  of 
their  lives.  And  the  Anarchy  of  which  they  spoke  and  taught — 
what  was  it,  but  an  attempt  to  answer  the  question,  "After  the 
revolution,  what  ?"  They  believed — ah  !  I  would  that  there  were  no 
grounds  for  this  belief— that  there  was  that  of  wrong  and  hardship 
in  the  existing  order  which  pointed  to  conflict,  because  they 
believed  that  greed  and  selfishness  would  not  surrender,  of  their 
own  volition,  unto  righteousness.  But  their  creed  had  to  do  with 


248  APPENDIX. 

the  to-morrow  of  the  possible  revolution,  and  the  whole  of  their 
thought  and  their  philosophy,  as  Anarchists,  was  the  establishment 
of  an  order  of  society  that  should  be  symbolized  in  the  words, 
'order  without  force.'  Is  it  practicable  ?  I  know  not. 

"I  know  that  it  is  not  practical  now;  but  I  know  also  that 
through  the  ages  poets,  philosophers,  and  Christians,  under  the 
inspiration  of  love  and  beneficence,  have  thought  of  the  day  to  come 
when  righteousness  shall  reign  in  the  earth,  and  when  sin  and 
selfishness  should  come  to  an  end.  We  look  forward  to  that  day, 
we  hope  for  it,  we  wait  for  it ;  and  with  such  a  hope  in  our  hearts 
can  we  not  bring  the  judgment  of  charity  to  bear  upon  any  mistakes 
of  policy  or  action  that  may  have  been  made  by  any  of  those  who, 
acknowledging  the  sublime  and  glorious  hope  in  their  hearts,  have 
rushed  forward  to  meet  it  ? 

"We  are  not  here  this  afternoon  to  weep,  we  are  not  here  to 
mourn  over  our  dead.  We  are  here  to  pay,  by  our  presence  and 
our  words,  the  tribute  of  our  appreciation  and  ths  witness  of  our 
love.  For  I  loved  these  men.  I  knew  them  not  until  I  came  to 
know  them  in  the  time  of  their  sore  travail  and  anguish.  As 
months  went  by,  and  I  found  in  the  lives  of  these  with  whom  I 
talked  the  witness  of  their  love  for  the  people,  of  their  patience, 
gentleness,  and  courage,  my  heart  was  taken  captive  in  their  cause. 
If  any  of  you  feel  that  the  tears  are  coming,  listen  to  the  last  words 
spoken  by  one  of  these  (Parsons),  our  dead,  on  that  morning  before 
their  execution : 

"Come  not  to  my  grave  with  your  mournings. 
With  your  lamentations  and  tears, 
With  your  sad  forebodings  and  fears! 
When  my  lips  are  dumb 
Do  not  thus  come. 

Bring  no  long  train  of  carriages, 
No  hearse  crowned  with  waving  plumes, 
Which  the  gaunt  glory  of  death  illumes; 
But  with  my  hands  on  my  breast 
Let  me  rest. 

Insult  not  my  dust  with  your  pity, 
Ye  who're  left  on  this  desolate  shore 
Still  to  suffer  and  lose  and  deplore. 
'Tis  I  should,  as  I  do, 
Pitv  vou. 


APPENDIX.  249 

For  me  no  more  are  the  hardships, 
The  bitterness,  heartaches,  and  strife, 
The  sadness  and  sorrow  of  life, 
But  the  glory  divine — 
This  is  mine. 

Poor  creatures!    Afraid  of  the  darkness, 
Who  groan  at  the  anguish  to  come. 
How  silent  I  go  to  my  home! 
Cease  your  sorrowful  bell — 
I  am  well. 

"It  has  been  said  that  these  men  knew  no  religion.  I  repel  the 
charge.  I  know  but  one  religion,  the  religion  which  seeks  to  mani- 
fest itself — its  service  of  God  or  of  the  Supreme  Good — by  its  service 
of  humanity  in  its  anguish  and  its  hours  of  despair.  And  one  of 
these,  our  dead,  while  within  the  very  gloom  of  approaching  death, 
gave  us  these  words :  "My  religion  is  this,  to  live  right ;  to  do  right 
is  to  live  right,  and  the  service  of  humanity  is  my  worship  of  God." 

"I  remember  that  back  in  the  centuries  it  was  written  in  words 
that  shall  never  perish:  "He  that  doeth  righteousness  is  righteous, 
even  as  He  is  righteous." 

"There  is  no  worthy  conception  possible  to  humanity  of  that 
which  we  call  God,  other  than  the  conception  which  sets  our  life 
aflame  in  the  service  of  our  fellow-men. 

"But  I  must  not  keep  you.  There  is  no  need  to  multiply  words 
in  such  a  presence  as  this.  There  are  times  when  silence  is  more 
terrible  than  speech.  When  men,  moving  to  the  supreme  issue  of 
life,  can  say,  standing  with  one  foot  en  earth  and  the  other  upon 
the  shore  of  the  unknown,  in  a  sublime  burst  of  enthusiasm :  "This 
is  the  happiest  moment  of  my  life."  When  men,  even  in  that  hour, 
can  cheer  for  the  cause  to  which  they  have  given  their  lives ;  when, 
forgetting  themselves,  they  can  speak  of  "the  voice  of  the  people," 
until  utterance  is  silent  forever.  And  what  need  is  there,  standing 
by  the  bodies  of  such  men,  to  multiply  words  ? 

"Yet  let  me  read  to  you  a  poem  handed  to  me  on  the  train  as  I 
came  hither,  written  by  I  know  not  whom,  but  by  some  one  whose 
breast  was  full  of  love,  and  whose  brain  could  catch  the  inspiration 
of  such  a  death  as  was  theirs  in  whose  memory  we  are  here.  Give 
me  your  hearts  as  I  read : 


250  APPENDIX. 

"Under  the  cruel  tree, 
Planted  by  tyranny, 
Grown  in  barbarity, 

Fostered  by  wrong ; 
With  stately,  soldier  pace, 
With  simple,  manly  grace, 
Each  hero  took  his  place, 

Steady  and  strong. 

Wearing  their  robes  of  white, 
As  saints  or  martyrs  might, 
Calmly,  in  conscious  right, 

Faced  they  the  world. 
While  on  each  face  upturned 
Sternly  their  sad  eyes  burned 
Reproach,  for  blame  unearned 

Hatred  had  hurled. 

Hatred,  dull-eared  and  blind, 
Hatred,  of  unsound  mind, 
Hatred,  which  gropes  to  find 

That  which  is  worst! 
How  could  it  judge  a  heart, 
Where  wrong  and  suffering  start 
The  throbbing  valves  apart, 

E'en  till  they  burst  ? 

How  could  it  hear  the  call, 
Through  life's  grim  silence  fall, 
Sounding  to  waken  all 

Those  souls  who  sleep  ? 
How  could  it  see  the  height  ? 
That  to  those  eyes  was  bright 
Where,  as  a  sun,  in  might, 

Freedom  shall  sweep  ? 

Not  for  the  hearts  that  bled. 
Not  for  the  bride  unwed, 
Children  and  wives  unfed, 

Should  our  tears  flow ; 
But  for  the  palsied  brains, 
But  for  the  stagnant  veins, 
For  the  greed  that  sucks  its  gains 

From  human  woe. 

One  with  a  gentle  word, 
One  with  a  sob  unheard 
Of  warning  love  ;  a  third 
With  triumph  cry 


APPENDIX.  251 

Meeting  the  rope's  embrace — 
Of  gallows'  old  disgraced, 
Making  a  holy  place  ; 

Thus  did  they  die. 

And  when,  in  later  days. 
Bards  all  sing  lofty  lays, 
In  freedom's  makers'  praise, 

Their  names  shall  live  ; 
And  hearts  which  cannot  sing 
Shall  the  pure  incense  swing 
Of  love,  that  all  may  bring, 

That  each  will  give." 

Other  speeches  mere  made  on  this  occasion  by  Eobert  Reitzel, 
of  Detroit,  Michigan,  Paul  Grottkau,  and  T.  J.  Morgan. 


BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLER'S  LETTER  TO  CAPT.  BLACK. 

BOSTON,  Mass.,  February  14,  1888. 
My  Dear  Capt.  Black: 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  letter,  and  I  am  also 
thankful  for  the  receipt  of  your  argument  to  the  jury  in  the  case  of 
Spies  et  al.,  or  what  will  be  known  in  the  long  history  as  the 
"Anarchist  case." 

Our  pleasant  acquaintance  under  the  most  unpleasant  circum- 
stances, the  joint  unsuccessful  advocacy  of  life  for  men  who  were 
unlawfully  convicted  and  unwisely  executed,  has  given  me  an 
insight  into  your  purpose  and  character,  and  will  make  our  friend- 
ship a  lasting  one,  at  least  on  my  side. 

I  had  not  believed  it  possible  that  palpable  judicial  murders 
could  again  prevail  in  this  country.  They  once  did,  in  what  we 
have  been  accustomed  to  regard  as  the  best  and  purest  days  of  the 
colonies.  It  is  less  than  two  centuries  since  seven  men  of  the 
highest  standing,  a  majority  of  whom  were  reverend  gentlemen, 
clergymen,  as  good  and  pious  men  as  ever  lived,  as  exemplary  in 
every  relation  of  life  as  it  was  possible  for  men  to  be,  sat  in  a 
so-called  Court  of  justice,  each  morning  session  whereof  was  opened 


252  APPENDIX. 

with  fervent  prayer  to  the  divine  source  of  all  knowledge,  grace,  and 
power,  to  direct  the  actions  of  his  servants  as  the  Judges  of  that 
Court;  and  in  that  Court  were  arraigned,  day  after  day,  poor, 
miserable,  broken  down,  superstitious  women  and  children,  upon 
the  accusation  that  they  had  commerce  with  the  devil,  and  used 
his  power  as  a  means  of  spite  upon  their  neighbors,  and  as  one  of 
the  means  of  inflicting  torture,  because  thereof  the  devil  had 
empowered  these  poor  creatures  to  shoot  common  house  pins  from 
a  distance  into  the  flesh  of  their  neighbors'  children,  by  which  they 
were  greatly  afflicted.  Being  put  to  the  bar  to  be  tried,  they  were 
not  allowed  counsel,  and,  thank  God,  our  profession  was  not  dis- 
graced, because  the  Attorney-General  was  a  merchant.  The 
deluded  creatures  sometimes  pleaded  guilty,  and  sometimes  not 
guilty,  but  in  either  event  they  were  found  guilty  and  executed,  and 
the  pins,  which  were  produced  in  evidence,  can  now  be  seen  among 
the  records  of  that  Court,  in  the  court-house  of  the  county  of  Essex, 
Massachusetts. 

And  beyond  all  this  that  Court  enforced,  worse  than  the  tort- 
ures of  the  Inquisition,  dreadful  wrongs  upon  a  prisoner  in  order  to 
accomplish  his  conviction.  Giles  Corey  was  an  old  man,  80  years 
of  age.  He  had  a  daughter  some  40  years  of  age,  simple-minded, 
not  able  to  earn  her  own  living,  and  a  small  farm,  a  piece  of  land 
and  a  house  thereon,  which  he  hoped  to  leave  to  his  daughter  at  his 
then  impending  death.  Giles  was  accused  of  being  a  wizard.  His 
life  had  been  blameless  in  everything  except  his  supposed  com- 
merce with  the  devil.  Upon  ex  parte  testimony  he  was  indicted  for 
this  too  great  intimacy  with  the  evil  one,  and  sent  to  the  bar  to  be 
tried  for  his  life. 

Giles  knew  that  if  he  pleaded  not  guilty  he  was  sure  to  be  con- 
victed, because  that  was  the  doom  of  the  Anarchists  of  that  day ; 
and  if  he  pleaded  guilty  he  would  be  sentenced  to  death,  and  in 
either  case  the  farm  would  be  forfeited  to  the  King.  But  if  he  did 
not  plead  at  all— such  was  the  law — then  he  could  not  be  tried  at 
all,  and  his  property  could  not  be  forfeited  to  the  King  and  taken 
from  his  daughter.  So  Giles  stood  mute  and  put  the  Court  at 
defiance. 

And  then  that  Court  of  pious  clergymen  resorted  to  a  method 
to  make  him  plead  which  had  not  been  in  practice  in  England  for 
200  years,  and  never  here,  and  poor  Giles  was  taken  and  laid  on  the 


APPENDIX.  258 

ground  by  the  side  of  the  court-house,  on  his  back,  with  the  flash- 
ing sun  burning  in  his  eyes,  and  a  single  cup  of  water  from  the 
ditch  of  the  jail,  with  a  crust  of  bread,  was  given  him  every  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  weights  were  placed  upon  his  body,  until  at  last  the 
life  was  crushed  out  of  him,  but  not  the  father's  love  for  his  child. 
He  died,  but  not  until  his  parched  tongue  protruded  from  the  old 
man's  fevered  mouth.  It  was  thrust  back  by  the  Chief  Justice 
with  his  cane.  The  cherished  daughter  inherited. 

Being  fully  imbued  with  this  knowledge  of  what  good  men  will 
do  when  they  are  either  frightened  for  their  souls  or  their  bodies,  it 
has  not  been  to  me  a  source  of  so  much  wonder  as  it  might  other- 
wise have  been,  how  the  law  was  administered  in  frenzy  in  Chicago. 
Years  hence,  when  you  and  I  have  passed  away,  the  case  of  Giles 
Corey  and  the  witches,  and  the  case  of  the  Anarchists,  will  be  com- 
pared by  just-minded  men  more  than  they  are  now.  I  hope  there 
may  be  one  fact  follow  in  the  Anarchists'  cases  that  followed  in  the 
witches'  cases :  Judge  Sewall,  a  reverend  clergyman,  and  one  of  the 
Judges  of  the  witches,  before  he  died  learned  how  deeply  he  had 
erred  and  sinned  before  God,  and  he  repented  in  sack-cloth  and 
ashes,  literally  coming  out  in  the  face  of  his  congregation  and 
standing  in  the  broad  aisle  of  the  church  exclaiming,  while  his 
written  confession  of  his  sins  and  folly  in  the  witches'  case  was 
being  read :  "Alas !  God  have  mercy  on  me  for  what  I  have  done." 

I  hope  you  will  live  to  be  present  when  one  of  the  Judges 
before  whom  you  argued  will  find  it  his  duty  to  take  a  like  step ; 
but  I  fear  that,  while  he  has  had  the  incredible  folly  of  Judge  Sewall 
in  the  treatment  of  his  prisoners,  he  won't  have  the  piety  of  Sewall 
in  publicly  appealing  to  his  God  for  mercy,  as  an  example  against 
all  others  offending  in  a  like  manner. 

A  learned  and  upright  Judge,  writing  the  judicial  history  of 
witchcraft  in  this  country,  sums  up  as  follows : 

If  the  popular  cry  is  to  be  the  standard  of  what  is  right,  the  security  of 
property  is  at  an  end,  personal  liberty  is  no  longer  safe,  and  the  blood  of  the 
innocent  will  often  seal  the  triumph  of  a  popular  administration  of  justice,  in 
the  triumph  of  popular  vengeance. 

Some  later  writer  on  judicial  proceedings,  comparing  the 
judicial  murder  of  the  witches  with  the  trial  of  the  Anarchists,  will 
close  by  saying :  "Alas !  how  surely,  from  age  to  age,  doth  history 
repeat  herself." 


254  APPENDIX. 

One  further  fact,  which  I  send  to  you  for  your  comfort :  The 
determined  action  of  a  single  member  of  our  profession,  standing  up 
against  this  witchcraft  craze,  brought  it  to  an  end.  I  look  for  like 
fruits  to  come  from  what  you  have  done. 

Eenewing  my  assurance  of  kindest  regard,  I  am,  very  truly, 
your  friend  and  servant, 

BENJAMIN  F.  BUTLEK. 


END. 


:e,.  ^^.i^soijTS'  soois:  OINT 

ANARCHISM: 

ITS    PHILOSOPHY    AND    SCIENTIFIC    BASIS. 


ENGLISH    AND    GERMAN    EDITIONS. 


PRICES :    Handsomely  Bound  in  Cloth  and  Gilt,  $I.IO.    In  Paper  Covers,  65  Cts. 

The  Chicago  Express  says:  "Anarchism,"  compiled  by  Albert  R.  Parsons 
while  in  the  shadow  of  the  gallows  on  which  he  died  a  martyr  to  his  convic- 
tions, is  unquestionably  the  most  complete  compendium  of  the  principles  and 
views  of  those  who  call  themselves  Anarchists  that  has  yet  been  put  in  print. 
It  contains  a  good  deal  of  solid  food  for  practical  thought,  and  it  should  be 
extensively  read.  Mr.  Parsons  understood  the  effects  of  monopolistic  pres- 
sure on  the  farmers,  and  explains  it  in  his  chapter  on  "Capitalism — its  Develop- 
ment in  the  United  States."  In  his  preface  Mr.  Parsons  says: 

"This  book  has  been  written  and  compiled  in  response  to  the  public  demand  for 
information  upon  the  subjects  treated  of.  The  circumstances  under  which  the  work  has 
been  performed,  in  my  dungeon,  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  gallows,  should,  if  aught  could, 
lend  additional  interest  and  importance  to  the  subjects  presented  therein.  If  the  public 
shall  be  furnished  information,  or  assisted  in  reaching  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  great 
question  of  Capital  and  Labor  by  a  perusal  of  these  pages,  I  shall  deem  that  a  sufficient 
reward  for  my  humble  effort  to  supply  it.  [Signed,]  THE  AUTHOB. 

"CELL  29,  COOK  COUNTY  JAIL,,  CHICAGO,  ILL.,  October  25,  1887." 

A  voice  as  from  the  grave  rings  through  200  pages,  the  last  work  of  A.  R.  Par- 
sons. Taken  altogether  it  is  a  work  that  will  become  more  valuable  as  the  years 
remove  it  from  the  immediate  scenes  and  circumstances  under  which  it  was 
written.  It  is  not  necessary  for  the  reader  to  believe  in  all  or  any  of  the  things 
in  the  book  to  make  it  interesting  to  him.  The  memories  that  gather  around  it 
make  it  valuable  as  a  memento  of  a  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  industrial 
movement  in  the  United  States.  The  work  contains  the  inmost  thoughts  of  a 
man  on  the  shores  of  the  dark  river,  a  palpitating  platform  under  his  feet,  a 
hangman's  noose  dangling  above  his  head.  It  is  a  book  filled  with  information 
that  will  repay  all  who  read  it. — Labor  Leaf,  Detroit,  Mich. 


The  Non-  Conformist  concludes  a  flattering  review  of  the  book  thus: 
"Talk  of  your  Robert  Emmet,  your  Saul  of  Tarsus,  the  heroes  of  the  French 
Revolution,  our  own  honored  John  Brown,  but  gaze  at  the  awfully  sublime 
heroism  of  this  man,  who,  with  an  instinct  born  only  of  true  manhood,  comes  of 
his  own  free  will  to  the  bar  of  ^in-)  justice,  and  to  satisfy  the  angry  yells  of  an 
infuriated  aristocracy,  gives  himself  up  to  be  tried;  he  is  incarcerated, 
listens  to  the  perjured  testimony  of  the  paid  assassins,  to  the  pleading  before 
the  Court,  and  then,  after  proving  himself  clear  of  any  connection  whatever  to 
stand  up  and  be  condemned  to  death — for  what?  1'or  holding  opinions  regard- 
ing a  system  of  society  that  he  believed  to  be  an  improvement  over  the  sys- 
tems that  now  tyrannize  the  peoples  of  the  earth." 

HIS   WISH. 

"Have  I  one  more  wish?"  said  Par-tons,  with  that  familiar  flash  in  his 
eyes,  when  a  few  days  before  that  black  Friday,  I  called  to  bid  him  farewell. 
"Oh  yes,  I  have  more  than  one.  Never  tire  in  advocating  our  high  principles  in 
the  warfare  between  cowardice  and  tyranny;  never  cease  until  the  American 
people  know  why  we  are  murdered  and  the  class  fanaticism  characterizing  cur 
comdemnation  is  understood." — (Extract  from  Alarm.) 

Order  Your  Book  from  the  Bookseller,  or  from 

LUCY  E.  PARSONS,  Publisher,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


^VERSITYOFILLINOIS-URBANA 


